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

[danny40]

Hey forum folks,

What a day, it was my first experience killing an adult quail. I made a lasso like device, a stick with a string tip inside a hollow tube (what you see during the village raid scene of Apocolypto). Put the string over the animal's head, pull the stick and it breaks the animal's neck.

Killing for food is a part of life, I can understand the need for it and hope to do it without suffering for the poor creature. When I pulled the stick, the neck snapped immediately but the bird flapped violently, just to be safe I pulled the stick again and off flew the head.

I'm sure the bird didn't suffer but it did flap around and spewed blood all over the place. I tried the CO2 method with bicarbonate and vinegar, it was agonisingly slow and thought I better save the bird a painful death. I ended up shooting the second bird with a homemade gun-like device which took me 3 hours to make (can't buy guns in Australia).

After reading this forum, I think the chop is the best method or perhaps the chop with cone as the flapping puts me off. It's good to know a lot of people are reserved about killing initially, but it is important to know it is a part of life. As long as you are killing for food and doing it as humane as possible, it is fine. Killing an animal for fun to satisfy sadistic pleasures would fall into a different category (future serial killers in the making).

I've read other forums where people would take an injured bird to have it put down by the vet, what a bloody waste of $50. An injured sparrow can be dispatched easily, just try out your baseball pitch against a brick wall. It will still die fast. At least it is good to know there are bigger wusses out there than me who had some trouble killing a quail (hey I'm working on it, give me some credit).

BTW, great website, I would not find such valuable information or discussion on a quail website. It is great to see so much input, debate and criticism of slaughter methods.

Danny

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Go to a fishing shop and get a hardwood priest, its like a little bat used for killing big fish. It will do the job and as its designed for the use it will give you better control. That way you can be holding the chicken and whack it when its calm instead of sneaking up on it with a baseball bat...........

.............sorry, the mental image got to me too

 

[jaku]

We knock our birds out with a 3 ft section of 1x2 board. One solid whack to the head (they are suprisingly easy to knock out,) and they go into the cone without any trouble. Then, the jugular is cut and by the time they wake up, (if they do,) they're nearly bled out anyway. It works quite well, and they never have a clue what's happening.

 

[TinyBirds]

Jaku - can you describe more fully how you hit it with the board? Is the chicken just walking on the ground when it's hit, or is it held by someone horizontally on a table, or what is the position? Does it take 2 people? I plan to try it soon! Thanks!

 

[buglit]

Jaku - dido, explain more, I think that I could do that

 

[jaku]

Haha, well, there's not much of a science to my method- just blast them over the head with the board! It's a little bit easier if you have one person hold the bird and the other swinging the board, but when I process, I usually only have one guy doing the killing, draining, scalding, and plucking, with two guys gutting, so it's pretty easy to just (depending on your coop/tractor setup,) sneak up on one and blast it while it's walking around. I do like to hit them with the wide side of the board, as it makes for a bigger striking surface, which makes you miss less. When you get good at it, you can take them out while they're running at full speed. You just need to practice and see how much force to use. It makes it really easy though, and you really can't mess it up. Hit them too hard and they might die (which they're about to do anyway,) hit them too soft and it won't knock them out and you'll have to do it again.

 

[Bossroo]

NOT that I am advocating this deed ... How about a golf club? One can practice one's golf swing and score a "birdie" for dinner at the same time ! If a miss or just a nick and the chicken runs amuck, one can claim to be chaseing Canada geese off the course.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The original point of this looooooooong-lived thread was to find a more humane way to dispatch a chicken. I don't think whacking them on their heads is a more humane way of killing a chicken than quickly slitting their throats. I think there's even more scope for not doing a complete or quick job the first time. Besides, the point of slitting their throats is for them to bleed out more completely while their hearts are still reflexively beating. Stunning/killing them by blunt trauma to their heads may prevent that clean bleed-out from occuring.
And I wouldn't think it would be amusing to watch happen.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Actually this is the way the USDA requires chickens to be killed for processing on large scale. They are to be stunned by electrocution or stunned by bolt device. Most chicken houses use the electrocution. Stunning before bleeding is the accepted norm for any animal slaughter. If you ever have received a good whack to head you know you feel nothing until you come to, and the chicken is not going to come to with a slit throat.

It may sound cruel but actually the chicken does not understand what is about to happen. Unfortunately both the bolt and the electrocution equipment is expensive. I often wonder if a air hammer could provide enough of a blow to stun.

 

[protodon]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it before but I can certainly tell you CO2 is not a quick or painless way to go. I've used it on mice and if you ever catch a breath just think of how soda burns if you burp and it goes in your nose. Well it's like that but in your lungs.

I've only done it once but I like the hang and bleed out method. I think decapitating would be the most humane but I haven't used that method due to the uncertainty of really getting the head off in one hit.