Just Burns My Biscuits!

I love that expression.  Know what I don't love?  Ignorant people.  I just came back from the feed store (my home away from home lately), and this is what happened:
I was looking over the chicks, waiting to be rung up (the clerk was on the phone), and I was talking to a man who was looking into buying some chicks for his kids to keep as pets.  Personally, I don't think chickens are pets, but I know a lot of people do, so I was giving him some pointers as to which breeds might work best and the very basics on what they need to have to be cared for properly.  As we were talking, an older couple walks in and looks at the brooders filled with chicks, one of which had meat birds in it.

Do you know where this is going yet?  Because I'm betting a whole bunch of you have had this same experience, and you know what I'm going to say before I say it.  But here it is anyway.

The wife looked at the meat birds, and said to her husband, "Meat birds?  How could anyone do that?"

To which, since I was in a friendly, talkative mood, jokingly replied, "It helps if you don't name them."

Bahdumbum.  Stupid joke, but come on.  I know the woman understood that it was a joke, but she looked horrified all the same.  Now I was a monster who killed chickens.  So I tried to explain "They're not like layer hens.  They're not able to live more than 8-10 weeks.  They're bred purposely that way."

Now the clerk (her name is Teresa) joined me and said exactly what I just said as well.  They don't live long, blah blah blah.  But that just made it worse, and the woman looked at the both of us like we had two heads.  We just dropped out of the conversation with her and went back to talking about what we were talking about before. 

I was ignoring the woman at this point and her "holier than thou" attitude, when I heard her say to the man behind me (who was the one I was talking to about layers before) "We treat our animals like family.  When they die, we mourn them."

I didn't say anything, but the implication was that people who would raise/butcher meat birds must not care about animals.  Oh, puhleeeze.  In retrospect, I should have said this:  Taking a life is no small thing.  It does NOT mean I don't care about the animals I raise.  In fact, I go out of my way to make sure they are happy and well fed and watered and comfortable.  Yes, they are meant for a certain "destiny", but it does NOT mean I will not mourn them.  I will, in my own way.  Your supermarket chickens had a horrible life compared to my birds.  Who really cares about animals now?

Of course I didn't say it.  But I should have.  Geez.  Ignorant people really burn my biscuits!