Eulogy for a chicken

Many people find something beautiful about the inevitability of death. No matter if we are rich, poor, normal or straight, we all meet the same fate in the end. Yet there is something tragic in that even those who cannot accept this must bear the burden of mortality, and none more so than the animals we humans use as disposable tools.

Sadly, one poor unfortunate Chinese chicken was among these individuals. It did not have a name, nor a funeral, however its memory shall live on in the exactly one person who remembers it with any respect. So, let us not forget its sacrifice to feed our obsession with exhibiting captive exotic carnivorous animals. Instead, let us remember the poor chicken for who it truly was.

Though it was born into a world which saw it as nothing but future meat and bones, it showed courage and perseverance unto the very end. Even when it faced its inevitable fate at the hands of the tigers, it kept its struggle to survive. As the old (not old i made it up) adage says, “To be a god is to lay on the altar…” It stood proud until the very end, struggling as it was pushed down the feeding tube like a true warrior does. Truly inspiring.

We unfortunately do not understand chickens. But maybe, just maybe, we can guess what its dreams and aspirations once were. Perhaps it dreamt of crossing the road to new pastures. Maybe it had dreams of becoming lead hen of the coop, or becoming the face of a local restaurant chain, its black feathers and the ring of puffish feathers around its neck immortalized in neon across the province. Alas, the world is too cruel, and it met its end as a popcorn kernel in tribute to our twisted senses of entertainment and as a martyr to apex predation… for that, let us all say, rest in pieces.

Sorry Amy

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