Have you PETA chicken today?

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2001)

Though entertaining and well-crafted, I was disturbed by this movie's reckless subliminal message to kids: chicken farming is evil, eating eggs is evil, and eating chickens is evil (plus, more obviously, chickens should be set free). PETA's zealous fingerprints are all over this movie! (PETA being People for the Ethical treatment of Animals.) Like most zealots, whose basic premise may be sound -- yes, animals of course should be treated with respect -- over the course of time the zeal for the cause often overwhelms reason and common sense.
If everyone indeed stopped farming chickens and eating them and their eggs, the species would quickly perish. Why? They have no other place in nature. Since before recorded history, chickens have always been bred and raised for their eggs and meat. Anyone ever seen a wild chicken fending for itself out there? Release them all tomorrow into the woods and forests and fields and just see how long they last.
Which the filmmakers seem to recognize at the end, by showing the escaped chickens living happily ever after, not amongst the other creatures of the wild, but in the protection of a former bird sanctuary.