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The "Chicken Project" is over, at least for now. As part of an ecology class at Canandaigua Academy students raised live chickens, and then killed them to better understand where the food they eat comes from. Critics called it unnecessary and cruel. The school listened, and now the course curriculum will be reviewed before a

decision on whether it's reinstated is made.

The debate around this issue begins with a simple reality; you don't often think about where the food you eat comes from, right? Chicken begins on a farm, and that's the point behind this Canandaigua Academy ecology class. Students raise hens from a few days old, until they're matured at ten weeks of age.

"They build a relationship with those birds in the sense that a farmer builds a relationship with a bird like that," Andy Thomas, a Canandaigua School District spokesman explained.

Then, just like on any chicken farm, there's a slaughter.

"Yes, in the end, it always gets to that point," Thomas said. "That difficult moment when the slaughtering day occurs."

It's difficult for some students who actively debate the ethical decision as much as they discuss the decisions leading up to that decision such as what to feed their birds and how to care for them. It's also a difficult moment for concerned animal rights advocate Joel Freedman and others. ... The chickens used in this experiment are specifically bred for human consumption; they grow quickly and proportionally large in certain areas, and school leaders say they often don't live much beyond ten weeks because of their breeding. At any point in the process students of this elective course have the option of not participating if they feel uncomfortable.

-- read full article: http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3ba82445-c943-444b-acb2-c 30a816f2b1c