Generally, I find that people do not have a great deal of respect for the beneficial effects of poultry in our society. This is a shame, because we could go on and on about our feathered friends and what they have done for us. For example, during the American revolution, the colonists used hens to sniff out red-coat sympathizers. Thus, was born chicken cacciatore.

PaTRICK HeSTER replied to this story with the following source information.

OK, OK.

This was ripped off from one of my all time favorite punsters – Mister Peabody. From the episode where the American troops were ordered “don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes” and the British soldiers wore shades. So Peabody and Sherman got some spray paint and glossed over the sunglasses with white paint so the battle could commence. At the end of the episode Peabody spoke about training chickens as spies. “Why Sherman, haven’t you ever heard of ‘chicken catch a Tory”?

Brian Combs added:

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre started his career as a catcher with the Braves. This was going along quite well for Torre and the Braves until one day a nasty collision at the plate happened when Torre tried to block a base runner from scoring. After that collision Torre was very apprehensive about blocking the plate and the Braves had to move him to third base. The other teams in the league realized he had become “chicken catcher Torre”.