The rift between urban residents and rural residents has been steadily growing. Primarily because in Australia’s largest cities, increasing numbers of people have never had anything to do with food-producing animals (and perhaps not even any kind of domestic pet), and little or no garden (that may not be the owner’s hands-on job to maintain, anyway). Living without any physical contact with the soil leads to a metaphorical loss of contact with the soil – unreal expectations and a sparse knowledge and understanding of food production, food producers, and the basic web of life.
People who didn’t grow up with a few chooks in the backyard are naturally nervous about getting some in case it turns out that keeping chooks is not for them. Today I discovered Rentachook. Based in Sydney, customers can purchase the whole setup easily – 2 chooks and everything they need (including advice), and if the purchasers want to return the chooks after the 6 week trial period then they get a full refund less the nominal charge of $100. The owner’s statement basically sums it up: ‘If you return it, you rented it. If you keep it, you bought it.’
A great idea and I hope it is going gangbusters because keeping backyard chooks teaches kids, in particular, about the realities of life (born, eat, sleep, produce, die) and having a balanced relationship between humans and animals. So long as the cutey-pet factor is combined with the understanding that some people obviously will have to keep thousands of chooks (i.e. mass produce, and not name all their chooks individually), in order to provide eggs and chicken meat to all the people who don’t want them in their backyard or who cannot, for whatever reason.