Chinese Farmer Helps Roosters Make Spectacles of Themselves
Although one Chinese farmer came up with the idea to cut the aggression between his roosters by making them wear specially made glasses on his own, the practice appears to date back to the 1950s.
In England, a similar pair of glasses were found and are now on display at London’s British Optical Association Museum.
For farmer, Zhang Xiaolong, who lives in Xiamen, these special glasses have made his chickens stop fighting with each other.
These spectacles are dysfunctional to say the least; that is, they do not help the roosters see better but rather keep the birds from looking straight ahead. This prevents eye contact and subsequent confrontation and fighting.
Before he came up with the idea of glasses to block direct vision, Zhang was losing about 10 roosters a day.
“I was inspired by my own glasses and thought if I could just block their view so they can’t see each other directly, they wouldn’t have fights,” says Zhang.
Made of plastic, the glasses are working. They work more as blinkers than visual aids. The very nature of the glasses forces the roosters to look around the sides, which forces them move more slowly and cautiously.
If the glasses should fail, Zhang might want to try boxing gloves, although fitting them onto the roosters presents many challenges.
Anyway, the eyes seem to have it here and that as Martha Stewart says, is a good thing.
Check out this video from the 1950s from the famous show, What’s My Line, on the subject of chicken glasses.
(Link)
By MDeeDubroff on 04-06-2011
