The "How Could They Have Done This?" Story

Colored chicks waiting to be sold.

It was an ordinary day.  Time of the year which I have fond memories of from my childhood.  The Easter Bunny leaving baskets of chocolate hidden around the house, Easter Sunday and my chance to wear the new suit to church that I got yearly at this time of the year and ... the colored  baby chicks that my parents bought for me to raise until just about full grown when we would take them to my Uncle's father's farm and release them.  

Advertisement from Lancaster County years ago.

Yep, I was one of those kids who had parents who would allow me to have just about any animal that I wanted, as long as I cared for it.  Anything from a parakeet to a horned toad to white mice and rats to a multitude of guinea pigs which I raised and then sold.  Made enough money selling them that I was able to buy my first car at the age of 16.  But, back then, I had no idea what those poor little chicks had to go through in order to be someone's pet at Easter.  

Baby rabbits were also colored.  I feel so bad for them!

Those colored chicks, or peeps as some call them, were dyed in one of two ways.  The dye is either injected in the incubating egg or sprayed on the hatchling while in a rotating drum.  Poultry farmers say it is harmless, but these are more than likely the same farmers who will eventually chop the heads off the chicken when it is fat enough to eat.  After Easter, many of the chicks will die since the children who receive them, and the parents who bought them, will tire of them and set them free in the neighborhood or just neglect them until they die.  

Magazine cartoon featuring a dyed chicken.

I must admit that I was never one of those kids and my parents were never one of those parents, but we must have been the exception, since half of the states in the United States now have laws against the practice of coloring chicks and quite a few municipalities, in those states that still allow it, now have laws against it.  The outcry from animal rights groups has been swift and continues to be.  Had my parents known what I now do, I'm hoping they would never had bought colored chicks for me when I was a child.  Actually, the candy and new suit were more than enough for any child to have received for Easter.  Soon time for all states to ban the practice, not only with chicks, but with the dyed baby bunnies that I still see from time to time this time of the year.  It really is an unnecessary as well as unacceptable practice which certainly teaches animal cruelty to young children at an age when they should be learning the proper care of pets.  Just my opinion, so it is!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.