Please Don’t Kiss the Chickens!
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: buzz-of-the-orient • 3 years ago • 33 commentsBy: Claire Lampen
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Please Don’t Kiss the Chickens!
The guidance out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has admittedly been a little confusing these past few weeks, but on one thing they are clear: No kissing chickens . Please! No more kisses! You have to stop, it’s for your own good!
© Ben Birchall - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images Not even this one Ben Birchall - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
You are probably wondering: Why does the CDC care if my chickens and I exchange the occasional peck, surely the CDC has more urgent problems on its plate right now? Well! It has come to the CDC’s attention that a bunch of people got Salmonella infections in roughly this way over the past year: at least 163 people in 43 states since February 2020, to be precise. And while it is eminently possible to contract Salmonella poisoning — think: fever, diarrhea, vomiting, cramping — from eating raw or undercooked chicken, that is not what the CDC believes happened here. This spate of infections reportedly came from “backyard poultry,” a category that also includes chicks, ducklings, turkeys, geese, and ducks, so don’t kiss those, either.
These birds often carry Salmonella , “even if they look healthy and clean” as the CDC notes, and their human caretakers can pick it up through contact with the animals, their waste, or surfaces in their environments. Therefore, the CDC recommends washing hands thoroughly after poultry time, and also the immediate cessation of any canoodling. The agency warns: “Don’t kiss or snuggle backyard poultry,” particularly if you are a young kid, as young kids are the most likely candidates for severe Salmonella infections. And! Constant vigilance, because backyard poultry season is upon us: “Spring and summer are always popular times for people to purchase chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry. As people tend to their new flocks, increases in Salmonella infections linked to live poultry are usually reported.”
While it is true that chickens have occasionally killed the things that offend them — see this fox, murdered in a henhouse — and while it would therefore be understandable for you to want to get on a chicken’s good side, probably find a way to do it that doesn’t involve gentle little forehead kisses. Okay?! Okay.
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I may have kissed a lot of chicks in my day, but I swear I never kissed a chicken.
I love animals but that's one thing I never went for. I see people kissing dogs and cats "who were probably licking their genitals five minutes before" right on the mouth, Gross. I know a guy who tried to kiss his ferret and got bit pretty badly on the lip. I saw a kid try to kiss a sun turtle and got bit on the nose, pain but no blood he got lucky.
Ferrets can be nasty!
(And they smell bad)
I did once...my ex.
I hear they don't even have lips.
So I've heard as well, however the chicks I kissed certainly did.
Obviously this wasn't a joke. It was also just reported on Bing News.
I believe I've read some articles that owning chickens has become a big fad in the U.S.. And not only people in rural areas-- some even live in very urban areas! They become fond of them as pets, with an occasional bonus-- they get Eggs to eat!
But then don't they need to have a rooster as well? Roosters tend to be somewhat noisy by "the dawn's early light" (a very American expression) and are capable of "woking" up a whole neighbourhood which could cause some neighbour to use their weapon of choice to terminate the noise.
It's not just a morning thing. My neighbor's rooster is proof of that. They fortunately live far enough away that although I can hear the noise, it's not loud enough to be disturbing.
When I contracted avian pneumonia and almost ended up on a respirator, my doctor told me I could never own any foul ever again.
So in your case the fowls were foul.
Had neighbors in Denver who had chickens and a rooster who woke everybody up every morning.
Thankfully someone beat me to killing it.
LOL. Saved you from being charged with animal cruelty.
So, I don't think my chicken-owning friends kiss their birds, but they do snuggle them.
I suppose if they get to love their chickens, then the birds are safe from ending up as a BBQ.
That is exactly why I'm not a farmer. I'd get too attached to the livestock and become a vegetarian.
I would be the exact opposite. I would be like, "Mmmm Bessy, you look like your fattening up nicely. Time to light the grill."
Funny thing is, I once took an aptitude test after I was practising my profession, and it turns out I was best suited to be a farmer. Maybe I would have had a happier life had I known that a lot sooner.
My dog made friends with the neighbor's pig (a chronic jailbreaker) while we were out walking one day, and always looked for him when we passed their house after that. He was such a friendly pig - when he got out of his pen, he wanted to come out and say hi to everyone, and sniff noses with all the four-legged neighbors. They said their kids cried when they told them Dinardo was destined for the freezer, and I was on the kids' side.
I would have been like, "Do I smell bacon?"
Wilbur - Zuckerman's Famous Pig (Charlotte's Web)
I should have found a literate spider and saved his life.
It was a favourite of my kids - I used to read it to them to get them to go to sleep.
Last relationship I had with a chicken went afoul over a batch of scrambled eggs and.........I just won't be hurt again.
"Is that a chicken joke?!? (JoAnn Worley - Laugh In)
Has anyone here ever seen the movie The Beautician And The Beast with Fran Drescher and Timothy Dalton? There is a scene in the kitchen where a chicken totally steals it.
Not one I've seen - but I could use it on a quiz.