Our kids started helping in the kitchen at an early age and as my husband hunted, processing was seen from a young age. My daughter loved it and always wanted to help. She would go hunting and bag herself a large amount of bunnies (stuffed animals) and whistle around the house and act like her Dad. My son wasn't as into hunting. He prefers to sit and read, eat the cookies and later eat the proceeds. As a kid, it was part of living on a small farm. I was the animal lover so I could catch any of the animals to bring to slaughter. My son said sure Mom, they like you so they come to you. I said, it makes it less stressful on the animal. Now we have our own small farm and I have other friends who have their own flock. So we have a butchering party and butcher all our chickens together and divy up the meat. That way if one is a pet or favorite, you don't know what meat that is. My Dad used to say "doesn't so and so taste good?" At first we would cry but then it became a competition. My pig tastes better than yours. Dad used this as a lesson to toughen us up and that we raised the animals to eat. The dog and cats are the pets that we don't eat. I also have 2 friends - one has their kids help the whole process and they love it - started about 3 years old - it may just be using the garden hose to wash the chicken. The other friend also had them help and whenever they eat chicken, they ask is this "and they name one of their chickens". They enjoyed the animals but also enjoy the eating of the animals. They also used the butchering to teach them the parts of the animals (kind of a biology) - teachable moment.
