The Emotional Side Of Chicken Processing

Booker81, this was a great article. As a matter of fact, I've read several of yours now and I'm totally impressed. As a matter of fact, you are the reason I just joined BYC, I just wanted to take the time to also let you know your taking the time to pass on your knowledge is hugely appreciated.

Most of us eat meat, and most of us buy it in a package. We should be able to raise and prepare our own food. We have lost the basics of taking care of our own selves, in a way.

This really helped me understand what what I am about to do!

I'm a vegetarian who raises birds for eggs and as pets. I don't have the stomach to kill animals for meat, which to me means that I won't eat any meat. I have total respect for people who kill their own food though. Every living animal will die anyway, that's not the tragedy. The tragedy is animals that weren't given a good life for the time they did have. It's so sad in the grocery store and at restaurants seeing how many products are made with caged-chicken eggs or mistreated meat and dairy animals. Right now, I buy only pasture-raised dairy products, but even those are hard to find. Someday maybe I'll be able to have my own cow or some goats .

I wish more people were like you! The world would be a much better place if everyone thought about the ethics of what they consume.

Great article. It's hard to take the step of physically processing an animal you've raised for food. We've been conditioned against it. Yet it really is the "circle of life", and if we believe in living in harmony with our world, this is a part of it.

I respect those who choose to be vegetarian or vegan, even though I do not share their beliefs or points of view. To me, humans are carnivore-leaning omnivores, and learning to raise animals for food with kindness and humanely preparing them for food is a fundamental part of living in this world with respect for all living creatures.

Processing animals is difficult for me. Too much empathy can be a curse, but it is part of what makes us human. Yet being a slave to empathy makes us unable to live successfully in a changing world, and unable to protect and provide effectively for our families. Learning how to do this helps me anchor to the world I live in more firmly.

Native Americans used to thank the animals they killed, for providing for them and their families. I've always understood that philosophically. Only in doing this have I understood it emotionally.

Thanks again for this most helpful article.

I’m grateful someone tackled this difficult topic. I struggle with butchering day, but it makes me more appreciative of the meat I eat and the sacrifice of a life that it requires.

This is something I have been struggling with since we bought our chicks. They are 5 weeks old and even though they won't be processed for awhile, I already feel bad. I can't even eat store bought chicken anymore without feeling awful.
Everything that the author expresses in this article really hits home. I am feeling less guilty and if I take the advice given, I believe it will be easier to process when the time comes.
Thank you so much!

It's ok to have animals for pets, and it's ok to have livestock for feeding our families... great reminder about great husbandry and it's ok to show kindness and love even when in the end they will enjoy a bbq bath.

It is somthing that has to be well thought out before hand I agree. Even as a hunter I struggle mentally over killing my chickens for meat. But it helps to remember that every chicken I eat of my own is one that WASNT inhumanely raised and processed. Mine get treated with the utmost respect right up to the table. And that means alot to me knowing this bird had a decent life, and death. Of course there are always the few that get named and have endearing personalities that make them family. Pets. But I think that just means I have a decent soft heart inspite of my ability to kill things for food. Thanks this was great food for thought.

for Thankfulness!

These birds are lovingly taken care of for the ultimate sacrifice to feed many.

Sometimes I feel people don’t really think much about the last minutes of a chicken’s life as they are hunted down by a predator. Nature? May very well be, however, so is the processing for human food and much, much more humanely.

Helpful for processing

This is good advice for those who are getting into raising meat chickens for the first time. We processed our first batch this past week and it was not easy emotionally. It takes a lot of mental coaching to yourself at first.

Great advice on how to steel first timers' qualms.