Please forgive a probably somewhat contraversial question - just interested to hear thoughts....

Do any of the owners who feed raw 'value' chicken products to their dogs have strong thoughts about personally eating free range chicken and eggs?

Seem to be going through a pre-mid life crisis and I have recently got v 'squeamish' bout eating cheap chicken and eggs, so much so that I now have four hens of my own (know i'm lucky here to have farm yard for them to roam in) for free range eggs, and hoping to start producing my own chicken soon - currently paying a (relative) fortune for free range roasters.  Still been known to much a kfc though but i think only cause its easier not to think about the bird you're about to much when its cooked and battered for you...not sure how long for though!

Recently spotted posts bout feeding chicken legs to dogs and wondered what the consensus was on giving dogs battery-style chicken..... my thoughts then led onto where the chicken in my current favourite food - Burns Chicken and Rice - comes from!  Not about to stop feeding proprietory dog food and bankrupt myself feeding my dog free range chicken but wondered if anyone else has similar sort of dilemma, and how they cope?!  :)

Interesting question...although Im not a raw feeder they get bits and bobs on occasion, like chicken wings here and there...I always tend to get the supermarket 'value' packs as its 'just for the dogs' and I haven't really thought about it too much, but when I get meat for the family it is always from my local butcher and so I know where it comes from and that the chickens are free range...I guess Im defeating the object when I will also purchase the cheap stuff for the dogs..hmmmm

>Do any of the owners who feed raw 'value' chicken products to their dogs have strong thoughts about personally eating free range chicken and eggs?<

If your'e talking about the 'value' chicken wings from supermartkets, then yes I buy them for the dogs and no, we don't eat them ourselves. (preferring to buy 'whole' chickens for sunday roast ;) ) Mine get fed minced chicken, tripe etc. from a 'dog food' wholesalers'
Whether the chicken or eggs are free range that I buy for the family, I honestly don't know.

I buy free range eggs and birds for us.I bought FR chicken necks and wings for the dogs once,but they were so huge and hard they could barely get through them.Obviously FR chookens are older and bigger when they are killed,the average unFR chicken is young so therefore their bones are smaller and softer which suits my dogs much better :(

I wonder if free range chickens and eggs are actually what they want us to believe they are?? When i think FR,i see large fields etc. Somehow i dont think they get much free ranging... I think as long as they have enough space to walk around a couple of feet,then they're probably "Free range".

By the way,it's spelt Controversial :)

My dog has the wings cut off of the free range bird that I buy about once a fortnight for us.  I buy birds around about 1 1/2 kgs so they are really no different to any other wings that I can see.
I don't buy food made from free range birds, well I've never seen any to be honest only organic stuff which I don't have any ethical need for :) but at least dog food will be made from the "left overs" which need to be disposed of anyway, well that's how I square it with my concience ;) but I can't bring myself to add to the factory farming industry by buying whole factory chickens or pieces.
You are right Ktee they don't need to give them a lot of space to claim free range but they do have to have access to outdoors during daylight hours and the space will be a lot better than a battery hen.

Free range/barn hens/chickens have only to be kept in a building where they can walk round, with a small space where they can 'go outside if they chose to'. They are kept in fairly large numbers in the sheds, and being the way they are, they don't usually venture outside at all. We all have this wonderful idea of hens rumaging outside as nature intended, and being put to bed safey at night away from foxes, but thats not the case. Having said that, its better than caged hens, but there is not the huge difference that most people imagine. A friends husband is an accountant for one chicken/egg factory near here, another friends husband actually worked in the chicken sheds, conditions are certainly not like the farmyard conditions the name 'free range' and 'barn' suggest. However, because they are not caged, and could go outside if they wanted, they do comply with the wording.

Dear Velmabell,

This has always been one of my pet subjects! I haven't eaten battery eggs since I went into a chicken battery 30 years ago - it was so shocking and distressing, I couldn't believe it was allowed!
I'm sure if people saw it for themselves, they would refuse to support such a cruel system...
And I haven't eaten meat for 20 years, but when I buy it occasionally for the animals, it is free range and organic...

I feel the same way as the OP. I give my dog a free range, organic egg (cooked) a few times a week because I hate the thought of supporting battery farms by buying cheaper eggs. I do hope to be able to keep a few hens myself in the not too distant future and will probably have some battery rescues. I also give her occasional chicken wings but my local supermarket only does a saver pack so I feel very bad when I buy them. Isabel's idea of giving the wings from the family's free range chicken is a good one and I think I will do that from time to time instead.

I'm wondering whether the happenings at the Bernard Matthew's turkey farm/factory will make more people think about the conditions that the majority of the birds in this country (and most others, I suppose) have to endure.  I will only buy free range chicken and eggs and will not buy any meals containing chicken unless I know it's free range.  My dogs haven't had chicken wings since I made this decision and won't til I can find a source of affordable wings.

But is the meat used in kibble from a free range source?

I know mine isn't and I wish there was a product to suit mine that was but at least if I never buy chicken off the supermarket shelves that is battery reared I am ticking somebodies research box into what the consumer wants and is prepared to pay for, so perhaps one day it will be :)

I would very much doubt that any kibble contains free range chicken - or any other major dog food for that matter.

I don't use kibble for my dogs.  And I don't use foods that contain chicken.

Have to confess that i'm going off the idea of feeding chicken in any dog food - at least with lamb and beef i'm pretty happy (as the OH of a commercial beef farmer) that there isn't really a beef or lamb rearing system comparable with battery systems for poultry - today when i bought some Burns dog food I actually bought lamb for the first time, there is no difference and price and if I notice any difference in performance i might change over to a fishy one, but probably not back to chicken.

Burns do actually claim that no battery hens are used in their foods, and the ducks in their duck and rice food are free range

>Burns do actually claim that no battery hens are used in their foods

Does that mean they are free range then?  I would have thought it would make the food very expensive.
I think ducks are always free range :)

I expect it just means that they don't use ex-battery hens but I would imagine that they use factory reared chickens - otherwise I'm sure they'd say "free range"

Well quite, and what is the difference between battery and factory reared apart from one laying eggs and one barely getting out of chickhood?

>Does that mean they are free range then?

Well I don't know about that :D

My post was more of a reply to the "battery systems for poultry" comment which made me think that the OP maybe thought battery hens are used in Burns food, hence switching to the lamb variety

duck Isabel..duck!!

Ducks are often farm-raised in large numbers, not necessarily as cramped as battery chickens but the conditions are still often less than pleasant.

Isabel's idea of giving the wings from the family's free range chicken is a good one and I think I will do that from time to time instead.

You see I only read this part , and found it a bit mean.  Then I read the rest of the post and understand now!

:D  They are not fed just once a fortnight you know!

If I buy any chicken now I buy free range.  It might not be valhalla for the chook but it is sufficiently humane, I feel, for the rearing of an animal which is ultimately going to be killed so I can eat it.  The analogy i use is that free range might be comparable to being imprisoned in one of her majestys prisons in the UK - our European friends dictate that this is humane -  whilst battery is more akin to enduring conditions in less savoury gaols abroad - think Terry Waite etc. 

How peculiar you should ask that!  Just yesterday I had the free range/battery dilemma in morrison's.  I only eat free range myself, be it chicken or pork, no matter what the situation (possibly excepting imminent death by starvation and no FR available!) I will not eat anything else.  But I was faced with having to buy a lot of chicken - I need a lot of high value treats to work on Soli's recall - and I'm not earning that much, so I had to buy a big pack of jumbo battery chicken legs.

It's the first time I've bought battery chicken since 2001 - I buy a whole FR chicken every week, I eat the breast and thigh meat and use the rest for the dogs.  But the cost is the issue - for the amount I need to get through the initial recall training stage, very treat-intensive, I just can't afford to buy the amount I'd need in FR.  Still feel bad about buying battery meat though - just looking at it makes me feel sick, the legs are absolutely enormous.  About twice the size of FR - shows how much more the birds are fed to fatten them up, and the amount of fat that's coming out as I'm cooking them is disgusting.  I know I'll have to buy it again, until Soli's at the stage of practising the recall out on walks - but as soon as I need less, they'll be getting only FR meat again.

This will make me sound terribly hypocritical - but the one exception I make is buying ham or hot dogs for the dogs.  To keep their recalls good (Remy and Opi), I have to vary the treats I use so they don't get bored - but the cost of FR pork products is just too high.  Normally I don't actually buy pork at all - just too expensive.  It drives me mad - there's nothing I want more than to stop buying battery meat altogether but for my dogs' sake I have to set my morals aside just for those two things.

As for dog food - some foods actually use FR and/or organic meat, I'm not sure if Burns is one though.

Oh, yes, free range piggies! Even more important for such an intelligent animal that their lives are not total misery before heading off to the bacon factory.

To keep their recalls good (Remy and Opi), I have to vary the treats I use so they don't get bored - but the cost of FR pork products is just too high.

I sometimes use tinned pilchards that I put onto a baking sheet and dry in the oven. They still smell but are handleable in a plastic bag in your pocket :)