Lucy Gabrielle

Raising chickens can be a wonderful experience. We love our girls. They all have names and they will be “Ladies of Leisure” long after they have finished laying. And raising chickens yourself can alleviate many of the cruelty issues associated with egg production, provided your chooks are getting to roam freely (at least part of the time).

But even then, there are some difficult questions to be answered. For me, one of most challenging questions has been “what do I feed my chickens?”

When I first got the chickens, I did a lot of research into raising them vegetarian and organic. But the reality is that it is exceptionally difficult to do this. To raise them organic, you need to source a comprehensive range of organic grains and mix the feed yourself. You probably have to do that by going to an organic supermarket, and there isn’t one of those for less than two and a half hours drive from here. Of course, then all the kitchen scraps would also have to be certified organic, and the ground they walk on (and the grass they eat) would also have to be certified organic. When you start looking at it this way, you can see why certified organic eggs cost so much to buy!

So having given up sourcing each individual grain and vitamin supplement yourself, you’re then left with pre-mixed feeds. And this is where raising your chickens vegetarian becomes tricky.

Almost all pre-mixed mash and layer pellets contain restricted animal protein (RAM). If you check the ingredients on the back of the bag of feed, they’ll refer to this as “protein meal”. If you go to the website, they may refer to it as “meat meal”. But I have not found one that specifies exactly what type of meat is in the RAM. But it was feeding RAM to cattle that caused the Mad Cow Disease outbreak in the UK. (Cattle were fed infected sheep’s brains.)

What we do know is that RAM is made up of other animals, including bones, blood, feathers and placental tissues. From what animals? It definitely includes chicken (male chicks are minced just after birth) and fish, but if I had to extrapolate I would also say mammals such as sheep and cattle (and maybe horses?).

I have been feeding my chickens grains, but they leave half of it behind and have lost some feathers and looking a bit shabby. I do believe they aren’t getting enough protein and that a layer pellet would probably help this. Chickens need protein. And if given the right opportunities, will source it from worms, bugs, moths etc. I have no problem eating eggs from chickens that have been eating worms, bugs and moths because that is part of their natural diet. I certainly DO have a problem eating eggs from chickens that have been fed RAM.

And if you’re eating eggs off the shelf in a supermarket or out of restaurants, then you are eating RAM.

Sadly, buying “vegetarian” eggs won’t help you avoid the cruelty done to chickens in the mass production of eggs. They are most likely still cage chickens that are simply fed vegetarian food. And they are all killed at the end of their laying life.

I am not saying all of this to shame you, guilt you or upset you. I am saying this to allow you to be aware and to be a conscious eater. Know what you’re eating. Then love it or leave it, the choice is yours. But know what it is. 

Meanwhile, I am still searching for vegetarian layer pellets and I will get it shipped from interstate if I have to. If you own chickens and want to do the same, go and see your local produce and ask them to stock vegetarian pellets. If enough people do it then they will have to listen.

Here’s my Christmas Wish List for the animals of the world.

• An end to horse racing and horse slaughter in this country.
• Compulsory regulation, registration and microchipping of horses.
• Peace, unconditional love and freedom for all sentient beings.
• An end to bear farming, bear baiting, dancing bears and bears for entertainment across the world.
• Peace and safety for the whales and dolphins world wide.
• An increase in consciousness in humanity to take respect for, care of, and stewardship of animals and the environment.
• Every political leader in the world to take responsibility for carbon emissions and to ensure the survival of our environment for all.
• An end to dog fighting, cock fighting, fish fighting and all other so-called ’sports’ that result in the injury, trauma, suffering and death of animals.
• An end to poaching of animals like rhinos, tigers and orangutans.
• A union of the spiritual selves of humans and animals.
• Security for the polar bears’ future.
• Horse and dog owners to understand that there are kinder, more effective, and non-violent ways of training and managing your animal and to embrace these techniques and to show others how to do it.
• An increased awareness and desire from humans to hear and learn from the animals’ messages and teachings.
• Safety for all from bushfires, floods, earthquakes and droughts.
• Care and protection of cats.
• Land and trees secured for wildlife, especially koalas.
• Compassion for ethical and cruelty-free methods for managing ‘pest’ species.
• A cure for the cancer that is harming the Tassie Devils.
• Effective, ethical, cruelty-free farming practices for all animals involved in food production.
• Peace. Love. Harmony. Joy. Compassion.

This is my wish.

What’s yours?

Yesterday, I got into an argument.

The argument was with a guy who was effusively proud of his ownership of several racehorses, his choice to send them to crocodile farms as crocodile food when their racing lives were over, his adamant belief that horses did not really feel the whip during a race and that race horses had ‘wonderful’ lives, his defence of eating both dog and horse meat and finding it quite tasty, his fervour to see the return of the whip to its full use during horse races, and his disgust at horses that had become “glorified lawnmowers”.

Those of you who know me will probably guess rightly that it wasn’t very pleasant for the three other people sitting at the dinner table while this argument raged on.

I struggled to contain my irate emotions, wanted to unleash hours of personal testament as to the brutality of horse racing, tried at least twice to tactfully extricate myself from the argument, but refused to be shouted down, at the same time being sensitive to the fact that I was in someone else’s house, and it was my mother’s birthday and we had just cut the cake.

Truly, I find this sort of thing very difficult.

Only hours before this, I had spent two delightful hours with Eileen, drinking herbal tea and planning our combined business activities for 2010. I had then gone to the chiropractor, where I’d had a lovely chat about the great work Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue was doing. The next thing, I had unexpectedly run into this argument, with someone who neither knew me very well, nor cared that I ran a charity that saw horrifying numbers of ex race horses in trouble once they had ‘fallen’ from their ‘glamorous’ lifestyle.

As a Reiki Master, I spend a lot of time in my courses discussing the concept of compassion and affirming the worthiness of living a compassionate life. I talk of the fact that we have no idea what is going on in someone else’s life, nor of the spiritual contracts they may or may not have entered into in this life that underpin their actions.

It is easy for us to find compassion… at a distance. It is far more difficult to find it in the midst of a raging conflict, especially when we are convinced that our viewpoint is correct.

Since then, I have replayed the night over in my head, trying to find a better, more compassionate outcome. I have imagined myself as a maroon-robed Buddhist monk, smiling, and calming yet powerfully diffusing the situation the way I imagine the Dalai Lama himself might do.

But it’s difficult. This argument is too raw for me right now to authentically feel compassion.

And I realise that this is exactly the path of compassion. Compassion, particularly towards those who have wounded us or our loved ones so deeply, may not be easy. And it might not happen in an instant. But our attempts to find it–to allow it–is the path of compassion. To at least acknowledge that we want to feel compassion puts a small chink in our energetic intentions and spiritual selves that lets the breeze of compassion enter, swirl around, and ripple some surfaces.

Most of all, we need to remember that compassion extends to ourselves as much as to others.

Louise Hay has an affirmation that goes something like, “I now release that part of me, which angers, when I think of you.” So, while I don’t quite feel ready to forgive, forget, let go, and move on, I am choosing to create and hold the space into which compassion, and forgiveness, might yet flow.