I bought a duckling in mid august (it is now march) that I decided I was going to raise and butcher on my own. Even though he was meant for the axe right from the start.. I loved him and even gave him a name (Oliver ha!). I kept getting prepared for the killing.. but always found a reason to put it off. Ollie had already eaten that afternoon so he was have feed in his belly... it was too hot out ... it was too cold.. we didn't have an axe/knives.. our knives/axe weren't sharpened. We didn't have two hours to dedicate.. the list went on and on. Five months later, Ollie was full grown and living in our laundry room at night and spending hours in the happy sunshine and water in the day. It was great. Then I restarted school and had to watch Food Inc. for one of my assignments. I decided Ollie's time had finally come. We played with him all day, loved on him and basically gave him a nice little send off. That next day he didn't eat.
Now the actual butchering..
We made a cone out of some bags we had, put Ollie's little head in there and hung him upside down for a bit. He was trying to get out at first.. then just calmed down. We stretched his neck out over a chair we had designated as "the chopping block". My husband covered his (Ollie's) eyes and down came the axe. It slit his throat but didn't completely remove the head. I urged my husband to hit him again thinking he was in pain (he wasn't, his neck had been broken which was our intention but I wanted to be sure he was completely dead.) Finally the head came off and we slung him over the chair back to bleed out. We dry plucked him, gutted him and now he's sitting in my fridge brining and waiting to be cooked.
The reason I wrote this little story is that a lot of people seem to think you're either weak and pitiful if you "humanize" animals and cant kill them or disgusting and a sociopath if you can. I loved Ollie like I loved any of my other animals. I would give him baths and chase him around in the sun.. we even played tug of war with my socks. There was a point a few months ago where I thought we were going to have to give him up and I cried, but the more I thought about it... the clearer it became. Ollie could have easily been one of those animals trampled over in a poultry farm. Scared, hurt and over fed.. constantly uncomfortable. Instead he lived with us.. was loved by us.. and was killed humanely by us. There are thousands of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other animals being treated like they're already "meat" everyday. But Ollie wasn't one of them.
I didn't mean to make him into a pet, but I did. Yet I was still able to do what I had to do. My family took a step towards being self sufficient and I hope to someday only eat meat I prepare myself to include the raising and killing. I guess I'm off to the store again.. maybe this time Ill get some chicks
Now the actual butchering..
We made a cone out of some bags we had, put Ollie's little head in there and hung him upside down for a bit. He was trying to get out at first.. then just calmed down. We stretched his neck out over a chair we had designated as "the chopping block". My husband covered his (Ollie's) eyes and down came the axe. It slit his throat but didn't completely remove the head. I urged my husband to hit him again thinking he was in pain (he wasn't, his neck had been broken which was our intention but I wanted to be sure he was completely dead.) Finally the head came off and we slung him over the chair back to bleed out. We dry plucked him, gutted him and now he's sitting in my fridge brining and waiting to be cooked.
The reason I wrote this little story is that a lot of people seem to think you're either weak and pitiful if you "humanize" animals and cant kill them or disgusting and a sociopath if you can. I loved Ollie like I loved any of my other animals. I would give him baths and chase him around in the sun.. we even played tug of war with my socks. There was a point a few months ago where I thought we were going to have to give him up and I cried, but the more I thought about it... the clearer it became. Ollie could have easily been one of those animals trampled over in a poultry farm. Scared, hurt and over fed.. constantly uncomfortable. Instead he lived with us.. was loved by us.. and was killed humanely by us. There are thousands of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other animals being treated like they're already "meat" everyday. But Ollie wasn't one of them.
I didn't mean to make him into a pet, but I did. Yet I was still able to do what I had to do. My family took a step towards being self sufficient and I hope to someday only eat meat I prepare myself to include the raising and killing. I guess I'm off to the store again.. maybe this time Ill get some chicks
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