Also, try not to name them. I call my meat birds "dinner chickens" any time we talk about them, to try and reinforce that idea with my kids from the beginning. Bachelor pads while growing them out can work well.
I pressure-cooked a 1 year old rooster and he was delicious. Put a few quarts of water in the pressure cooker with some chicken soup veggies, and also got the most amazing broth which I then used for pea soup, egg drop soup, etc. The meat tasted like beef BBQ to me, so I put BBQ sauce on and...