Why Are We Punishing the Chickens?

I was grocery shopping this morning and reached for some chicken breasts. Then I stopped cold and scowled.

The banner across the chicken breast wrapper declared that they never got antibiotics. It was bragging about this in big, bold letters.

Yes, farmers used antibiotics to fatten chickens. Yes, we humans have overused them and misused them as sugar pills to hand out to people who have a virus.

You know whose problem that sounds like? That sounds like a human problem. As in, those stupid great apes messed up a good thing and lost their antibiotic privileges.

I fail to see why that should cause the chickens any problems. Why should they suffer from rampant bacterial infections that their caretakers could treat with antibiotics? Bacterial infections are sometimes deadly and frequently painful. Why would you brag about leaving your birds in pain?

So what if it does get in the human? The humans should have been better about how they use antibiotics in the first place. And you can wait a few weeks - give the poor birds a rest- before taking their eggs or slaughtering them to let the stuff clear their systems. Or maybe take the poor beasties home as pets.

Well, I suppose that wouldn't work as they are treated the way they are in order to keep our food cheap. You don't have to be cruel about it though, especially when it is our species that has dug our own hole.