I’ll have to go back and re-read—was it clear that the chicken that burned wasn’t actually Fawkes? I took that scene as Harry’s interpretation of “normal” phoenix renewal.
Even after encountering Fawkes, Harry keeps insisting that the first encounter was with a chicken. A lot of chapters later, Flitwick suggests that it was probably a transfigured chicken.
In fact, I burn chicken often, then eat it (granted, I have someone else kill it and dissect it first, but that’s not an important moral distinction IMO).
I think most people see an important moral distinction between killing a chicken painlessly and setting fire to it. Although the vast majority of meat isn’t produced painlessly, a lot of people believe that their meat is. This implies that they might not be so casual about setting fire to a chicken, themselves.
Even after encountering Fawkes, Harry keeps insisting that the first encounter was with a chicken. A lot of chapters later, Flitwick suggests that it was probably a transfigured chicken.
I think most people see an important moral distinction between killing a chicken painlessly and setting fire to it. Although the vast majority of meat isn’t produced painlessly, a lot of people believe that their meat is. This implies that they might not be so casual about setting fire to a chicken, themselves.