There are times when I despise the human race...

On Friday, after watching one of my little red hens slowly fade over 10 days or so, with nothing I did seeming to help, I took her to the RSPCA to see their bird vet. And this is what she told me.

It seems that Isa Red hens were bred in France, genetically modified from the original breed.  So that they lay every day, religiously, sometimes more than once in a 24 hr period.  Then at age 3, the genetic modification kicks in because they are past their best laying period and are no longer considered useful, and they fade away and die.  My poor little Penny never had a chance.  She was a pet as much as she was a valuable resource and I would have been content, whether she was laying or not, to keep and care for her.

I guess this is a comment on ethics as much as anything...as in, scientific advance does not seem to HAVE any ethics.  If this is the kind of thing that genetic modification is going to be used to do (and how long before they apply the same principle to a human experiment...just think, a whole race of disposable people...) then I say a pox on it and may their chickens turn to emus and kick them hard, where it hurts the most!!  Just because we CAN do something, doesn't mean that we should.  Where is the responsibility in running wild with scientific discovery, in directions that are questionable at best, and cold manipulation of the lowest sort at worst?  Because we ARE responsible for animals. We're supposed to be looking after them, not using them up and then discarding them like disposable napkins, with no thought for their welfare.