Multi-colored Easter Chicks

Random fact, it would be illegal to sell these in Washington DC. Laws specifically prohibit the selling of baby ducks and chickens with colored feathers. :)

Using live animals as disposable gifts for small children is cruel. Which is why this is illegal in many places, and condemned by the ASPCA.

Not cute.

I'm with you two up above.
Pure ignorance toward animals should be a hanging offense.

I don't think that these chicks were given to children. It was just the farmer's way to make the children's visit to the farm more enchanting.

I do agree that giving children chicks at Easter and puppies and kittens to children at Christmas is a bad thing. The chix end up in the garbage can, and the pups and kittens at the shelter.

felixthecat. Lots of people buy these as presents. No **responsible** farmer would do this.
Unfortunately they are nothing new as a holiday gimmick. Cute though they are, they grow up, which is something a lot of people forget.

Pets are not *gifts*, they are alive. With a few horrid exceptions, we don't treat our children this way, why is it acceptable to treat our animals so?

btw felix, only the first line was directed at you, not the rest. >.>

My husband's sister bought 4 dyed chicks a couple of years ago. She lives on a big piece of land w/ other family members where they have various other farm (pet) animals. They were really cute and very well taken care of. The same as all of the other misc animals they have.
That's not to say though that these wouldn't get in to the hands of some irresponsible people though.

When I was a kid, all the dime stores and drug stores sold colored chicks and ducks for Easter. One day I bought a couple (I was maybe eight) and took them home. My parents were not happy, which I didn't foresee (maybe I was seven). A few weeks later, we took the chicks to my grandparents farm, where they were raised and eaten at Christmas.

"Random fact, it would be illegal to sell these in Washington DC."

Thank the deity of your choice, it's illegal here in SC too. Now if they would only make it illegal to sell dyed fish...

If you think that's cruel, you *really* don't want to watch the video of what happens to chicks that happen to be born male. I won't even post the link.

Where are the Animal Wrights?

It's Cruel, absolutely cruel! As other people said here, several of them are destinated to the garbage or to the dead.

Just to compare, here, in Brazil, a begger were painted while he was sleeping on the street. Both are victms: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,MUL1554959-5598,00-MORADOR+DE+RUA+ACORDA+COM+O+CORPO+PICHADO+NO+RS.html

It's time to take care of humans and animals.

Yeah, if only humans would leave those poor chicks alone to live in the wild, where they would live in wonderful peace and harmony.

Unless of course you're a male chick and there's a rooster around - then you'll be quickly pecked to death.

Or you're a female chick and can't fight your way up the pecking order with your "sisters".

Or any one of dozens of predators up the food chain decides to make you their snack.

Or since they're out in the wild - no drugs to keep the numerous infections that kill chickens at bay.

And lets not forget lice, mites, fleas.

Some of you city folk need to get out more. Humans and their easter day dye is the least of a chickens worries.

I had these little colored chicks as a kid. Mine were a pink one and a blue one and they grew up to be two white chickens.

Zhoen- They're not disposable. They're a much longer lasting present than candy or eggs or such. The chickens grow up and you get to raise them and harvest their eggs or meat. It's a great experience for kids. Kids should have more contact with animals, especially food producing animals. Too many kids today are too disconnected from where their food comes from. You should see first hand as a youngster that a chicken nugget wasn't always a chicken nugget, but rather was once a little fluffy chick and a big warm feathery chicken. You build responsibility that way, not just in the learning to care for the chickens, but in learning the value of responsible farming and eating,too. The chickens are Easter fun and a real learning experience.

Last year charges were laid against someone in Ontario for dying a few hundred chicks for Easter.

Also, a quick Google search reveals this to be illegal in numerous US states. I think because it leads to impulse buys by people who haven't considered what they are going to do with a live chicken afterwards. Then some rescue organization is going to have to run around collecting half-starved chicks in the weeks following Easter.

Kind of like how rabbit rescue organizations are run off their feet about three months after Easter as people come to terms with the fact that rabbits don't actually like children, and are neither docile nor cuddly. Trust me, I have a house rabbit, I wouldn't recommend it to a household with children, for the rabbit's sake.

Way to go. Buy a stuffed rabbit and a stuffed pastel-coloured chick, and leave the livestock to the farmers!

My boss bought my kids 7 colored chicks for Easter. She did forewarn me she was thinking of doing it. We've had one casualty - the poor chick couldn't poop, but other than that the remaining six are thriving and doing well. We don't live in the country, but we do have a nice yard & the backyard chicken coop will be completed tonight. My kids are excited to watch them grow and take care of them.

listen up people doing this to the chicks is not harmful. it like dyeing your hair. they will grow out of it. get your facts stright befor you complaine bout something.

Does anyone realize what happens to most male leghorn chicks (most egg laying breeds for that matter) after hatching? They're euthanized... Very, very few are needed for breeding... They're practically useless for meat production. So they are taken out back and axed. So perhaps dying them a festive color gives them a chance at a longer life? Those who say that it's cruel need to take a cold, hard look at reality.