Street Chickens

I get a kick out of the animals I see on the streets here.  I've already rambled on about the dogs and there are the expected cows, but I also see goats, the odd sheep, and have witnessed a riderless horse ambling along the side of a street.  Recently though, I've noticed the the odd stray chicken.  

Every morning, I see truck loads of live chickens being delivered.  If I had access to a kitchen, I could buy a live chicken, have it plucked and butchered and bring it home.  I've gone by some of the stalls selling them and I'm both intrigued and feel very sorry for the chickens at the same time.  The feeling is not unlike the one I have on my way to work in the morning.  My schedule matches up to the delivery of live pigs to the last abattoir left in more down-townish Toronto and I always feel bad for those pigs on their final trip. 

What I like about the chickens, is that I think of them as "escapees" from the chicken truck.  I see them pecking away at whatever they can find with everyone ignoring them.  Although I am sure that their freedom is short lived;  if someone doesn't grab them, they will likely peck their way in the wrong direction and get flattened by a speeding rickshaw and still end up in the stew pot.  

Even so, I can't help but smile when I see them on the run.  Run, Chicken, Run!