Chicken Exchange

There's a story in today's paper about a couple of folks who rented a house in a nearby town. Apparently, although their landlord rented out the house, he maintained a chicken coop in the backyard, complete with $500 rooster. That house must have smelled great and those renters must have wanted to snap that rooster's neck every morning.

Lately, the landlord noticed that some of his chicken flock were missing, most notably the $500 rooster. I think most of us would assume that, in these troubled economic times, the renters were making chicken soup, chicken pot pie, fried chicken, and chicken salad. All of this would make sense - except for the missing $500 rooster. Rooster pot pie? Yuck.

After some investigation, the landlord learned that his renters have harkened back to an earlier age and revived the practice of bartering. Somehow, they convinced a local meth dealer to exchange drugs for chickens. Now, I can understand the renters' logic, figuring a chicken in the coop is worth at least a few grams. What I can't understand is why a meth dealer would accept live chickens. Even if you're high on meth, you'd certainly recognize the difference between a live chicken and cash. Cash doesn't crap in your car. You can't exchange a live chicken for more supplies to make meth - or at least I don't think you can. Of course, I didn't think you could exchange chickens for meth, so clearly I'm totally out of the loop.

I wonder what the going exchange rate is in this chickens-for-meth market. I'm also guessing that the $500 rooster is headlining at some local cockfight.