Insert your own chicken related title here

I'm a skeptical/cynical bugger at the best of times. I wasn't always that way. I suppose a combination of lethargy, discovering how comfortable clothes from the Gap really are, and post Live 8 disillusionment (we could have changed the world man, we could have changed things for everyone, and not just improved album sales) has taken it's toll on this once proud warrior. Signing petitions and wearing badges makes me a warrior right?

But I am fairly inspired to make a change after watching a TV show. Thanks to Coronation Street I will never walk up and or down a mountain again. Nah I'm only joking, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 3 part look at chicken production began this evening. It didn't make for pleasant viewing, I have to say I expected there to be a few more hide behind the sofa moments than there was. But I think that's still to come.

I had already pledged to make changes in how I buy meat and food in general when I read Nick's post on why he is a vegetarian. He put it another way though, Why do you eat meat? Personally I love meat, mmmmmmmmmeat. Lovely stuff. But hey if you don't enjoy the taste of animal flesh that's more than fine with me, and you can skip the rest of this post. Why not pop over here and see what the waiter saw.....

Now that's got rid of that lot. My fellow meat lovers, the process of removing the fluffy and the not so fluffy animal from the field and getting them to the point where we douse them in BBQ sauce is not a pretty one, particularly if you use BBQ sauce. Ewwwww. We all know this and we all make like it doesn't happen. We blank it from our minds. We see the cows in the fields, we see the steak on our plate, the bit in between is filled with a farmer with shiny things distracting us from the carnage going on in the shed behind him.

The point of Hugh Chummly Whummly's programme is to expose the cruelty of the chicken industry. Hugh states that the chicken is the most put upon animal in the human food chain. And when you think about it he is probably right. The price of chicken is low. So it stands to reason that the cost of chicken production must be low too. It takes just 39 days to rear a chicken, slaughter it, wrap it and stack it on a refrigerated shelf in a supermarket. 39 days of pure hell for the bird. They stand in complete darkness for all that time, they are packed so tightly they cant sit down. They would turn to cannibalism if the lights were on such is their boredom. The darkness keeps them docile. Much like chefs it has to be said.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Free range chick chicks can be bought for a few more quid a packet. I know this means a lot to those on a lower income. But for everybody else this should be a no brainer, buy the chicken that's had a jolly life. Buy the chicken that's enjoyed little chicken adventures around it's run. If people made the switch then the higher price of organic free range chicken would come down. It's fucking cruel people, very fucking cruel.

Think about the little chickens being forced to stand in their own chicken poo, which burns their little chicken legs. Would you want that for your own children? No you wouldn't, unless you're a cunt. And you're not a cunt are you? Click the banner above and help a chicken.....

I'm not shopping at Tesco's any more either. I live with butchers, fruit and veg shops, bakeries, delis, and cheesemongers all with in walking distance of my house. Is cheesemongers a real word? Dunno. So why am I giving my cash to to bloody Tesco's? And it's always full of dirty students too. They're always hanging out round the reduced section or buying crates of two for one beer. Get a job. £1.00 in every £8.00 in Britain is spent in Tesco's. Fuck that. No more of my hard flirted tips are going into their tills. Bite me Mr Leahy. And it doesn't end there either....