Please help me understand meat eaters not wanting to process a chicken!

[SunnySkies]

Those folks would have died about taking a class I took -- and was required for my BS in animal science and by the pre-vet program at the university I attended -- about a thousand years ago. It was entitled meat science. We learned where the cuts of various meats came from, how to grade carcasses, food safety, etc....all hands on. Yep. We were responsible for dropping and processing cattle, sheep and hogs in a on-campus USDA facility that sold the resulting products to the university and the general public. You were not allowed to opt out. I have not looked to see if my alma mater still offers that class.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If one wanted to opt out, they need a new field of work.

 

[gypsychicken]

I know there are a lot of clumpsy errors in this vid, but there is still something to learn there for sure.

 

[Lee Nelson]

As it says in my Living With Chickens book, most people are at least 2 generations removed from having to butcher their own chicken, and we have lost our ability and willingness to do so. Plus food is so cheap and plentiful now (although sadly lacking in nutrients), that I guess people would wonder why you would want to butcher your own meat. I have never butchered my chickens; they are egg layers, and I just don't know how to do it, but I would be willing to. Right now I have a nasty rooster that I would love to take to the chopping block. I end up giving away roosters on Craig's List, and although I say "free to good home," I know that these people take them home and butcher them and eat them. They are from the Eastern part of the world, and they do it all the time and think absolutely nothing of it! If people really knew how their chicken was raised and factory processed, there would be national outrage. My chickens have a better life than most people in the world! So to make my point, I have never done butchering, but I would be willing to do it . , ,

 

[Ruthster55]

Recently did the first one on this farm (I've done some before). BR RIR mix roo. I always give them a calm-down touch under the base of their wings and tell them I'm sorry, and then quickly use a knife.

Rested the result overnight in whole milk with a bit of meat tenderizer. Pre-baked the pieces and then slow-simmered for about 5 hours. Came out tender and almost-but-not-quite falling off the bones.

In this part of the world, usually women do the chicken butchering basically as part of the process of cooking a meal.

The folks who ate the resulting stew raved over it. People here are connected enough to the land that they prefer the heritage breed taste over supermarket chicken taste.

I was quite grateful that the folks enjoyed the meal.

One person at the table has butchered many times whereas the other had never done so and told me he couldn't.

I think there's always been a bit of a division of labor with this, even a hundred years ago, but it's become really magnified in the US and Europe with industrial food production.

 

[Lee Nelson]

Very interesting. My neighbor's parent's have an annual chicken butchering hoe-down on their farm, and I am always hankering to go and "see how it's done!"

 

[Ruthster55]

Definitely go. Not completely necessary though. Just have to be confident with the knife. Have a good pair of poultry shears on hand and a pot with scalding water.

Actually, I learned from a popular blogspot site. It is very helpful with how to recognize the gallbladder and has hints about scraping the lungs.

I don't raise Cornish X, so I do one or two at a time whenever we want traditional chicken dinner.

 

[Lee Nelson]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Beekissed]

I have never met anyone that both was a chicken eater, and told other people they should not kill chickens. Lots that eat chicken but do not want to see them butchered much less help butcher. Not wanting to participate in butchering does not make someone a hypocrite.

Now I will agree that it would be hypocritical to be concerned about animal welfare, quality of life for the animal, or quality of food for ones table and still purchase factory farmed chicken.

I would say you've been very fortunate then....because every single person I've met who gets upset over my killing my own chickens for food have been chicken eaters. Some actually have siblings that own commercial broiler and battery houses~and still manage to convey that they think I am quite barbaric and heartless to raise a bird from a chick and then eat it. I've even got a family member of my own who has called me a "murderer" because I kill chickens and eat them(she sends all her livestock out to the processing place and gets them back in neat white packages)...and these are people who were raised in the country all their lives, so it's not just the city or suburban folks who've never had an opportunity to experience livestock death who have this very strange thought process running through their heads.

I can see why the OP is fully confused because I've been in that very state of confusion for many a long year. I probably wouldn't even have a problem with people who eat chicken not killing their own meats...that's just silly...not everyone knows how, can conceive of it, or even have chickens to kill in the first place. What confuses me are the people who go out of their way to try to insult, guilt or otherwise put down those who kill their own animals for food... while they pick the meat out of their own teeth.

On this very forum I've heard the same phrasing over and over...." I could never do that...I'm too soft-hearted!" Really? That implies that anyone who can is then..what? Hard-hearted? Yes..that's exactly what is being said in so many words. So the hard hearted chicken killer is the bad guy at that point but those who eat their sweetly cellophaned chicken from the store are heroes with their soft and compassionate hearts? Hug a chicken in one arm while holding the KFC bucket in the other and call someone else hard hearted....that's where rational thought leaves the room.

I hope you all can then understand where that all seems a little...um..hypocritical..to say the least. That's when you can't compare it to someone not repairing their own vehicle or building their own houses simply because they drive a car or live in a house. No one is disparaging a mechanic or a carpenter when they work on their own car or build their own house...they would rightly assume that if you are a mechanic and you own a car, that you would naturally work on it and if you are a carpenter and you wanted a house built that you would naturally build your own.

But...when you are a chicken eater and you eat your own chickens, every single "soft-hearted" person you work with, live near, or are blood kin to will step right up and tell you how shocked they are that you could do such a thing. Confused? You bet I am.

Quote:

Wow... is it really that outré?

Seems clear as interstellar vacuum to me. Killing (put whatever weasel words you want there) has ethical ramifications regardless of what you are killing. Sometimes those ramifications are slight (e.g. killing a bacterium), sometimes they are substantial (killing a human), sometimes they are gigantic (killing a genus), but the ramifications are always there.

Accepting ramifications and making an informed choice is honest. Trying to evade the responsibility while enjoying the benefits is hypocritical.

This thread began with someone not understanding people who didn't want to process their own meat. We have covered (pretty thouroughly) the various reasons why someone might legitimately want to eat meat but not process that meat themselves. We discussed many cases where that desire is reasonable and rational.

I am now attempting to point out where the actual dividing line between acceptable/understandable and unacceptable/bizarre sits - not between wanting to process or not, but between accepting the responsibility for your actions and not. In a sane world it would go without saying that this is my opinion only, but I'll offer that disclaimer anyway.

Seems as straightforward as anything could possibly be...to me.

Exactly. No one said that taking a life so that you or others may eat should be easy...it's not. It never will be, nor should it be. It's just a basic acceptance of responsibility for what you put in your mouth if and when you possibly can. It's basic integrity and responsibility that spurs me to do it, not to mention that it is healthier, it saves me money and it also completes the cycle that I have started in my backyard when I first placed a chick there.

I have nurtured it, loved it, often named it, spent a good deal of time on it and feel it is only right to complete that life with a humane, dignified death and the consuming of that energy that once was a life. I never thank the chicken...that's hypocritical as well...he did not step forward and volunteer for the job of being my meal, so thanking the bird is a little like smacking someone and then thanking them for the fun of doing it. I thank God for providing the bird for me and helping me have the fortitude to kill it.

I have no problem with those who cannot do it...no big deal, live and let live. But, I do take issue with those who dare imply that someone is hard hearted, of a less than compassionate nature, and even cruel if they kill their own chickens.

 

[Ruthster55]

Good comparison with the mechanic and carpenter.

Most ppl are too far removed from their food. Many years ago, ppl usually knew the butcher who prepared their meat. No, not everyone did that job, but they sure appreciated the food that resulted.

Latin America still has a tradition of butcher shops rather than supermarkets.

I just learned that sauteed (on a BBQ) gizzards (mollejas) are a Christmas snack here. Sure, ppl eat sweets too but sometimes they eat a gizzard....

Most North Americans couldn't fathom that idea these days. Maybe 50 years ago when you could actually buy giblets if you wanted them from a local butcher.

The day you butcher the chicken is hard, but the day you cook it and serve it and see the delight on the guests' faces is totally different. The butcher becomes the provider.