Description

Sally Coulthard tells the fascinating and sometimes shocking story of the domestic chicken
The chicken can fly only a few metres but somehow this unlikely evolutionary descendant of Tyrannosaurus Rex has conquered the world Earth is now home to more than twenty billion chickens at least ten times more than any other bird For every human on the planet there are three chickens In Fowl Play Sally Coulthard charts the chickens fascinating journey from dinosaur to domestication to exploitation exploring every aspect of the history of Gallus gallus domesticus its importance to the ancient Egyptians Greeks and Romans as food source and fighting bird its symbolic roles in religion and folklore and metaphorical function in the language we use its homely place as eggproviding companion on farms smallholdings and in suburban back gardens and its darker modernday fate as battery bird raised to satisfy societys unquenchable addiction to wings and nuggets Of all animals chickens perhaps best represent the contradictory way we humans treat other species both beloved pet and cheap commodity symbol of a sustainable good life and brutalised object of factory farming The chicken is also a bird we feel deeply familiar with and yet know very little about As informative as it is entertaining Fowl Play tells a remarkable tale of evolutionary change epic global travel and ruthless exploitation as well as of companionship ingenuity and the folly of human nature