Awful......

[Hans Mum]

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Odd News :: Multi-coloured chicks ruffle feathers

hope this doesnt catch on here, i was really appalled by this article

[mr darcy]

how tacky and yukky!!

[organic]

2 minds...
If it's genuinely harmless then I'm a bit "so what?" about it - even thought I really would NOT want chicks like that (I think they look far better in the "Original" packaging). [EDIT - I'll hazard a guess it probably doesn't fit with the "organic" thing either]

On the other hand - the point about making them seem like a novelty item is very valid and kinda worrying. The last thing we need is the "aww, cute" factor leading to someone being stuck with a fast growing chick (becoming a hen or a cock) and being completely unprepared to raise, care for and protect them from predators.

I see a chicken equivalent of the "a dog is for life" campaigns on the horizon.

[ginger ninger]

Owww, that's terrible, I hope the yuppy, spoilt crowd don't see them or it will catch on.

[MrsC]

Sad, very sad!!!!!

[kirsty b]

Chicks are plenty cute enough with out messing with nature!

Also agree with organic's second point.

[minskey]

That is awful.

On another point; I have just come back from Kings Lynn where down one of the shopping streets there were pens set up [on the cold stone floor with a handful of straw] which had baby rabbits in them.

There was also a group of tables under a canopy. Inside there were animals in plastic container/boxes including three chicken chicks and two ducklings.

They were under a heatlamp and people were being encouraged to pick them up. I think this is unneccesesery. I have no idea why they were there or what they were advertising. baby animals being mauled by people all day............. definate no non in my book

[yeti]

not right at all,prefer them in there normal colour thanks..

[dexterdoglancashire]

I saw the picture on the front of the paper, didn't buy it. Thought it was an April Fools joke. Sad.

[Liza]

Idiots and anyone who buys them

[Shellintons]

Kids will love them! That's why I'm not showing mine the photo
I don't like it though it does seem wrong to take something as cute as a chick is naturally and mess about with it. Designer chicks? I thought we already had them with some of the fabulous breeds we all enjoy so much.

[organic]

Kids will love them!

I think that's largely the problem. If it takes dyeing them fluorescent colours to make someone want them it really doesn't bode well when they lose the colour, start looking more like a normal hen and need a lot of looking after.

[Bramble-Poultry]

when i imported tropical fish into this country a few years back, it was fashionable to have "neon glass fish". these were a natural "see through" fish, where you could literally see through the fish. (search Chanda Ranga spp in google to see a picture) then, some bright spark realised he could inject coloured dyes into the muscle tissue on the back and belly, which would cause the fish to take on the colout of the dye for upto 6 months

They sold like hot cakes, until one day we read a report that "optimistically" stated that by using the new revolutionary dye, you could get the mortality from the injections down to a more managable 30-40%

we found this totally unacceptable, and our chain of shops were pivotal in getting the import of such fish banned.

had we known that the fish died because of the dye we would not have purchased them, we were assured at the time that the "dyes were natural" and "harmless".....sounds a bit like the guys in the article?

what i cant understand, these chicks retain their fluffy look for only a few weeks, so whe go to the expense of the injections etc to colour them, when teh effect is very short lived. If someone wanted to create an orange / red pekin bantam, i would suggest that one could easily be created by taking a white pekin, and for a few weeks before and during the moult, work in some red factor food (as used with canaries) as this will colour the new feathers coming though from the moult. It is harmless as it has been used for literally decades in the canary world. The colouriser is a naturaly occurring red pigment included within the food. There would be no need to inject the birds and risk killing them,

[squibbs]

Must have been a slow Princess Diana Story day.

I don't think they will catch on though - unlike fish which stay the same I think most people do know that chicks turn into chickens and most people I know who keep chickens aren't that daft.

[matthew2riches]

They'll be the replacement to the old 'funfair fish'