IS it hard - Page 5

I think that if you don't neuter your cat or dog because you want them to be natural is not completely true... It's not natural at all for an animal to be built a protective shelter and given food so that it is guarrenteed to live. You would never neuter a wild animal because its not natural. However if the animal your talking about is a pet then it's already not in its natural state. And like wyodreamer and galanie says shelters like the SPCA are already bursting with animals. And THAT isn't natural. I've worked with shelter dogs and cats and beleive me. THey've been through some pretty cruel stuff that could have easily been avoided by spaying/neutering. 

This is our 3rd flock of meat birds, my job has always been to keep our 3 young children occupied in the house.  Then my husband brings me the cleaned bird  to can or vac. seal.  This year will be my first year helping with the slaughter.  I expect it to be hard, if it wasn't that would be odd.  I will also have my 6 year old daughter learning beside me as we believe that our kids should know where their food comes from.  I have killed and cleaned fish and rabbits and each time I feel sad about taking a life but there is nothing better than feeding my family food that I have provided! Like everyone else, we have lovingly raised these birds and even though we try not to get attached, we do.  How could you not?  You try to buy the best food to help them grow, you provide shelter to keep them safe from predators and in the end you slaughter them in the in the most compassionate way you can.  So, this Saturday will be the day, and Yes, I expect it to be hard.

The ASPCA AND American Humane Society reports that over 4 million animals will be euthanized this year because of shelter overcrowding... You're a veggie and don't wanna kill animals? Fine.

I want you to go to an innner city shelter and look at the faces of the hundreds of dogs and cats kept in tiny pens with low quality food and minimal care. Pick four cats and four dogs that you like.

Then tell me which two dogs and three cats you would kill to keep your animals unspayed and "natural".

Because if your dogs have a litter that is what will happen to the shelter dogs that could have gone to those homes instead. If your cats have a litter you've put an equal number of shelter cats on death row. Over half of all dogs and over 70 percent of all cats that go into a shelter don't come out and that's why I chose those numbers. If your animals ever reproduce you have just killed that many animals that they produce that are in shelters.

But you don't want to kill things and say you have no respect for people who keep a plastic barrier between them and the meat they eat? How is this ANY different? You may want to re-think your opinions because... This ideal of the "natural world" you have is exactly like some city slicker thinking you get meat from the meat fairy that goes to the store, not a living breathing thing. You're killing animals right as I type this by ever allowing your animals to reproduce.

And that's why my animals don't breed and I get them fixed. If they DO breed it must serve a purpose and there are few purposes that are better than food. You do your best to provide for the animal and at the end of their life they're given the highest respect for their sacrifice. Without them we could not live. So for that reason it's hard to kill an animal but when it has to be done it gets done. Nobody likes taking a life whether it's all in a day for them or not... In the end I don't know of anyone who doesn't respect the animal whose life they've just taken even if they're nonchalant about taking it.

One unspayed, fertile female cat will turn into 11,000 cats in just five years.  We got our ten barn cats spayed/neutered as soon as we moved in and found them here.  It turns out that the vet aborted six pregnancies out of the seven females we brought in.  That could have been 24 MORE cats in our barn.  Most would have starved or frozen in the winter.  I simply cannot afford to feed that many and nature would have had its way with them.  Much more humane, in my opinion, to get them fixed. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by punk-a-doodle 

Spay/neuter was just brought up to help illustrate a point, not to swamp OP with opinions on fixing pets. The OP has been open and respectful to opinions on meat birds, so maybe we can do the same, eh?

Sorry   Extreme introvert here. It can take me an hour to get up the nerve to post something, another half hour to write it and decide it's suitable to post.  I typically spend most the rest of my life regretting it.  I apologize and will stick to asking questions rather than attempting to answer them. 

No need to apologize, especially not to me!    It's great to hear everyone's very valuable input...just seemed like the thread was about to sidetrack.  :)

I should not have worded my post in a way that made the OP answer a personal question.