Birds. Cockfighting in TX. Plight of Ducks/Geese. Male Baby Chicks. Shopping.

The basic issue is simple: "The question is not, can they reason?
Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?"
(Jeremy Bentham, philosopher and animal rights activist; 1748-1832.)
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Close the Gaping Holes in Texas Law

"Although cockfighting is a felony in Texas, it is still legal to attend cockfights, and to own cockfighting birds and weapons. These loopholes make it impossible for law enforcement to crack down on the entire cast of characters involved in cockfighting.

A bill has been introduced to close the loopholes in Texas' cockfighting law (S.B. 939). But we need your help.
Please make a brief, polite phone call to your state senator Senator Robert Nichols (512) 463-0103 . You can say: "I am your constituent and ask for support in closing the cockfighting loopholes in Texas."
Send a follow-up message after you call. Until Texas law prohibits ownership of cockfighting birds and weapons, roosters will continue to suffer needlessly for the sake of gambling and entertainment."


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So what's wrong with bread and crackers? What do waterfowl naturally eat?
"People derive great pleasure from taking their children to a local park that has ducks and geese and feeding them. These birds sometimes provide the only exposure to "wildlife" that many city kids ever experience and so it could be argued that the birds provide a service. But it is a disservice to feed them, especially when it is a steady diet of bread, crackers, chips, popcorn and the like.
They can literally starve to death if that is all they get to eat. Geese are vegetarians and need access to vegetation. Ducks are mainly vegetarian but they require some protein. Both will eat grains and corn.
You may see wild ducks and geese in a cornfield or wheat field after harvest; they are eating the raw, unprocessed product, a whole food. Along with grains they are getting grasses, shoots of weeds, worms, snails, and bugs.
In the water they tip to graze shallow areas for water plants, consuming small fish when they find them. Mallards "dabble" the surface of the water for bugs, mosquito larvae and floating vegetation. Birds fly to different areas for different foods, so they have a wide variety of foods, but plants and vegetation comprise most of their diet.

People mean well when they bring big bags of bread and crackers and it is difficult for them to understand that they are killing the birds with their kindness. Bread fills the birds up, swelling in their stomach, but providing no nutritional value. They feel "full" so they go and rest and eventually they become habitual beggars, subsisting on handouts and forgetting to eat their natural food. After all, that is way more work to find!

Another complicating factor is that the habitat becomes overcrowded and there actually may not be any natural food left. Yet the birds that can't fly can only go as far as they can walk. Stale bread from an occasional visitor may be their only meal."      From: http://www.upc-online.org/ducks/52004plight.htm
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Another view of factory farming, Chicks 'ground alive' by poultry producer:

"Cheap eggs are not worth it."
"Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa."

WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT - VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Video from: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/chicks-ground-alive-by-poultry-producer/story-e6frf7jo-1225769179445

This happens at most hatcheries, not just the one above.
Some of the petitions against this cruel treatment: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/680/155/948/
and: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/622/petition-to-encourage-willmar-poultry-inc-to-stop-its-cruel-hatcherpractices/  and: http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/g-pinkpetition.asp
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Yesterday: 
Ray did some more sanding, priming and painting to the doors and panels to be installed in the cargo trailer, while I went shopping for more supplies for him to use. 
It will be so good to get these doors and panels installed so I can post some pictures of our progress.  But first I have to decide on what type of hinges to buy!  Oh, forget that, I have bunches of them up in my attic, I will have to see what will work in the trailer.

It has been wonderful not to have to run the AC the last two days.