Now this may just freak some people out: "Zombie chickens" hatch debate over older chickens' fate

Apparently when hens which are farmed for laying eggs get too old to produce those over easy specialties, they are euthanized in the following fashion:

To kill the chickens, farmers suffocate them in sealed boxes filled with carbon dioxide, a practice that has drawn the ire of animal rights groups. Afterward, the hens are layered in mounds of sawdust.

After being buried, some of the chickens "woke up" and started running around. Besides freaking people out (think Pet Seminary) apparently there is some debate about what to do with the birds. I am guessing the animal rights crowd might want a nursing home for the chickens, but the old school guy in me just says to keep them in the box longer.

But it looks like the "zombie chickens" have to wait awile before than can become something useful - like fuel.

A new European technology that turns dead cows into fuel to generate electricity -- and that could be the fate of spent hens someday, said Rich Matteis, head of the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association.
But ``that's not something that's going to be available anytime soon,'' he said.

Giving animal rights groups a cause for today. Thanks to the chickens that ain't going down for nobody.