Why chicken comes in packets at supermarkets

Chicken: common domestic fowl: a domestic fowl, usually with brown or black feathers and a fleshy crest on its head.
Latin name: Gallus domesticus

(By the way, I have a habit of rambling on and on... If you get bored, just scroll down to the end and read the answer)

Why does chicken come packed at the supermarket? This has been a question that puzzled me for quite some time. To most of the people living in cities, I suppose the definition of a chicken would have been pretty useful. In fact, even though I live in a relatively remote place, I seem to have seen more dead chickens than live ones. (Yes, they do exist as something other than what you see packed in neat plastic covers. No they don't come from a chicken plant... despite that being hard to believe).

Now where was I? Ah yes, the chicken. Now the chicken's been a part of our lives for quite some time. In fact, the chappie who gave it the fancy Latin name probably knew of this and rightly named it Gallus domesticus, which if you haven't noticed already, means it's a domestic something. Frankly, I think chickens were placed on the planet for us to eat. I mean, can you just imagine the ridiculous things running about in the wild? They'd be extinct before you could say "salami". We're doing them a favour you know? Preserving the species and stuff.

But I digress... so the chicken has been part of our diet for quite a while, and though we're eaten it for years together, we haven't quite got tired of it yet. I doubt the chicken is very happy about this, but if the daft thing is too stupid to run away, it isn't our fault is it? I mean, those large seemingly difficult to open mesh cages and stuff are just for show. If a chicken was really determined, it would've managed to get out by itself. It's just nature.

I was walking past one of these chicken shops yesterday. You know, the cheap ones that do the chopping in front of you? And it looked so gruesome that I felt I'd never eat again. The poor things didn't know what hit them. They're put into these tiny cages and stacked so tightly that they can't move. Then they're taken and they're killed. I've been avoiding that shop ever since. It makes me want to puke.

So.. Why does chicken come packaged in supermarkets? The answer is pretty simple... It's so that people like me who can't stand much violence to animals can still eat the chicken and have a good time without a guilty conscience.