DIY HUMANE way to Kill Slaughter Chicken (Stun-kill, Gas)

[estpr13]

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Excellent post. The same as Kosher as described in the Old Testament. Most hygienic I can agree, and one of the least cruel.

 

[chooniecat]

humane has NOTHING to do with how YOU feel(well-you'll be sad one way or another). humane is as quick as possible. thus-cut head off,break neck. gassing is slow and inhumane (fact). i am HUGE into animal care(humane) and that is WHY i am doing my own so they will go from their happy environment to the kill VERY QUICKLY. think of the critter, NOT yourself.

 

[GBov]

Have to say that I have my doubts as to the throat slitting being humane at all! It takes over a minute for the animal to die by blood loss. Pain tends to make time slow down a bit - just ask a woman in labor about time dilation lol - so to my way of thinking that time spent dieing is a bit too much.

I like the instant neck break or head off myself

Not having my dispatcher out of storage yet I am going to try long handled pruners when I buy 4 roosters this week. An old pair of jeans has given up the ghost so the leg will get a draw string top and bottom to snug around the neck and legs, then I will just hang it up and snip the head off. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Well, thats the plan anyway

 

[sesa]

Has anyone considered lethal injection

 

[BirdBrain]

who wants to eat it after that though

 

[Heather J]

I had someone new come help me with this last round of processing. He preferred to break the necks--which he had a really hard time doing, so he ended up slitting the jugular and letting them drain out. NEVER AGAIN will I do it that way. I had to listen to them gurgling their own blood while they bled out. For me it's take the had right off, have the kill over with and the pain done. We've tried several different ways and in my experience this is the most humane way, even if it isn't very pretty.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

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So it just looks worse than it really is for the bird. There's the same amount of flopping & flapping after the chop, but you have the reassurance that if you remove the entire head with one whack, there's really no way the bird could be feeling anything after that. I used to have difficulty getting a good strong whack, so I prefer the slice instead.

 

[dancingbear]

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So it just looks worse than it really is for the bird. There's the same amount of flopping & flapping after the chop, but you have the reassurance that if you remove the entire head with one whack, there's really no way the bird could be feeling anything after that. I used to have difficulty getting a good strong whack, so I prefer the slice instead.

I know a lot of people say it just "looks worse", but how could they possibly know, since they haven't been through it themselves? I think people just like to think it only "looks worse", as a way to feel ok about it.

I think chopping off the head all at once would be better. No head, no pain. Better. I'm still nervous about being able to do it by myself, since after all, I'm equipped with only the standard two hands. But maybe a good, sharp cleaver would be the solution.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Well, I'm presuming that other folks more knowledgeable in chicken anatomy & physiology have determined that if those particular vessels are severed then the bird is rendered instantly lifeless, and there is a logical explanation for the continuation of movement. I'm taking their word for it, and not feeling guilty when the birds I dispatch by throat-cutting continue to move while they bleed.

They seem to do the same amount of movement after getting their heads chopped, the only difference is that you know for certain they're not really feeling any pain.

That's the reason I stopped doing the yank method, because I couldn't tell if they were continuing to flap out of protest or just reflex. And I stopped doing the chop because it was messier, and because I was having difficulty getting the head to come off with just one neat blow. I guess I lack the arm strength, and also found myself hesitating right at the moment when I needed to be decisive. I wasn't doing the birds any favor by chopping them gently, but it was difficult to overcome my instinctual feeling to "be nice to the chickens".

It was a bit unnerving at first to do the throat-cutting, to be so close-up & personal to The Deed. But when I saw how quickly the birds went limp (before the reflexive flapping) it didn't feel so bad. I get them very relaxed, and hypnotized to the point of slumber, it's all a very calm & quiet event.

 

[jaku]

But does anyone REALLY know for sure that there's no pain when the head is chopped off? It could be the worst pain in the world, but no one's ever survived to tell about it. There have been cases where people were beheaded then looked around for several minutes afterward. My point is this- you're killing an animal. There's no way around that. It's not going to feel good or enjoy it, no matter what you do. As long as you aren't being cruel to the bird, you're fine. If that's not good enough, you may want to become a vegetarian, or sit around and wait for your birds to die of natural causes.