Rooster Feathers and Our Inner Neanderthal

Writing for Discovery News, Marianne English notes that while some consider the taking of feathers and the subsequent euthanizing of roosters a cruel business, most chickens raised for feathers live longer and better lives than most chickens raised for food.

Tom Whiting: “As highly damageable assets, these animals are the ‘most pampered commercial chickens in the world,’ he said, crediting their existence and long life spans originally to the fly fishing markets.”

And by the way, the fashion of feather tresses may have started not with Steven Tyler but with Neanderthals.  Feathers, after all, aren’t a new thing.