If you've ever fed out a beef steer for your table, you'll understand this...The steer is locked up in a small pen or stall for at least 3-6 weeks to get the grass out of them, and the good corn in them. You go in two times a day to feed and water said beastie. After about a week of being smashed up against the walls, hit with a mucky tail,tromped on,and run over, you can eat that sucker with a rusty knife and fork. Not so with the birds, or pigs, who always work on your feelings.I've always been a bit different with my kids and the naming of the food animals. We always tried to come up with names that suit their personality and we don't avoid giving them extra attention, just like all our other animals. Food animals have the same quirky personalities and beauty as the "pet" ones and so we just accepted that fact and rolled with it. It didn't make it any harder to butcher them later, as there was always one or the other of us that weren't quite so emotionally involved and could do the deed.
The only one I could not do was my ram lamb, Mo Fats...he was just one of those sweety, moochy sheep that always wanted to have his head on you and wanting to be close to the shepherd, though he was not bottle fed or coddled in any way. My boys didn't have the same relationship with him, so they butchered him while I was at work. It's not always easy but I tend to develop natural attachments to some animals, not so much to others....but if they were raised for food, they all go the same route in the end.
Such is life and I embrace the heartache of killing certain animals the same as I embrace the loving of those same animals. Makes everything you do so much more real and alive when you have those contrasts in life.