Don't hug your chicken

When bird flu killed a couple of humans in Indonesia, backyard chickens in cities were banned. Most folks around here have chickens, not just for meat and eggs but magnificent fighting cocks that are kept under a small roof and on a leash. Presumably the dogs leave them alone out of fear.

But when I warned a couple of urban yuppies that their back yard chickens were a source of disease, they objected because the chickens were pampered, not kept in cages like in chicken farms.  They didn't appreciate it when I pointed out that free range chickens could catch bird flu from local birds coming to steal their chicken feed.

OregonLive story that says the same thing and USA today headline insists the problem is rare, but the article quotes that ten percent of the birds are infected.

and the USDA reported that ten million chickens were euthanized to stop the spread of bird flu.

so what is the problem with hugging your chicken? Most human cases were from direct contact with sick birds,  and remember to thoroughly cook your chicken meat.

or maybe we should follow Asimov's tongue in cheek suggestion and go back to eating Zhenyuanlong suni raptors, the dinosaur raptors who had feathers.