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News & ArtsThursday, February 9, 2012
Animals Herzog Is Right about Chickens
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 9:48 AM
I have stared at a chicken's eyes and seen and felt this stupidity Herzog is talking about...
Werner Herzog on Chickens from Tom Streithorst on Vimeo.
Chicken stupidity is so profound it's philosophical.
I've also seen a chicken run about without its head—legs, feathers, blood spurting from where the head should be. It ran perfectly well without its head. It even ran across a narrow bridge that was in my cousin's backyard. Only a fence stopped the headless bird.
2
Charles, have you ever heard of Mike the Headless Chicken? In 1945, he lived for 18 months without a head. http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/
3
IME, they don't "run" so much as just sort of flail their extremities more-or-less randomly, which may result in a sort of ambulatory effect. But in any case, it seldom lasts for more than a few seconds - maybe ten at the absolute most - before their disconnected nervous systems shut down for good.
4
Stupid as chickens are, turkeys are even stupider.
On my grampa's farm I remember seeing them looking up at falling rain --their beaked mouth wide open-- and nearly drowning. (We had to chase them into the coop whenever it was raining so they didn't kill themselves.)
On my grampa's farm I remember seeing them looking up at falling rain --their beaked mouth wide open-- and nearly drowning. (We had to chase them into the coop whenever it was raining so they didn't kill themselves.)
5
just substitute 'Kris Kobach and Alabamans' for chickens and you have an appropriate response to this.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
8
excellent herzog profile in the atlantic or new yorker a few years back. he wanted to film a midget on a miniature horse chasing a chicken around a giant sequoia. it was about to happen but then the owner of the mini horse backed out because he thought it was too degrading to the horse.
9
@3: what you describe seems about normal, but every once in while you get the total death defying chicken such as the one Charles describes.
I remember being totally traumatized at about 4 or 5 by witnessing a chicken-that-refused-to-fucking-die that ran round and round and was similarly only stopped by hitting a baked mud fence.
I remember being totally traumatized at about 4 or 5 by witnessing a chicken-that-refused-to-fucking-die that ran round and round and was similarly only stopped by hitting a baked mud fence.
10
Post-decapitation movement is all about how much brain-stem you leave. Chop high and you get a zombie chicken. Chop low, they flop a bit and are done.
14
Farm life, with its dreary lack of predators and regular deliveries of food, makes animals stupid. Being bred for meat and not brains also makes them stupid. Wild chickens are not anywhere near as stupid as farm chickens.
16
Charles -- check out the Fellini take on hypnotizing chickens. I think it's in 'And the Ship Sails On.' Am kind of surprised Herzog didn't mention it.
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