Duck Responsibilities (aka Slaughtering Our First Duck)

[The Chicken Lady]

In the Bible (even if you don't believe it, it's a good story), God told Adam that humans were to be set above the other creatures.

I think part of our responsibility as "lords of the earthly domain" is to be to animals like God (or another higher power) is to us: to show love and provide for their needs, and in the end, give them mercy. The most humane death is the best one for the animals we must harvest for food.

I was very touched by your story.

 

[greyfields]

Thank you for sharing. It's always with a lot of sadness that I take my chickens and waterfowl in to be processed. Part of me always wants to turn around and just come back home with all of them. But, the other side of me will keep reminding me that it's moral to raise your own meat. We should feel 'badly' about every scrap of meat we've ever eaten in our life, except for those which we ourselves raised.

The beauty about people in this forum is that we care about our animals and look after thier well-being. Industrial farmed animals have no such luxury or care for their well being. We're truly luck, since we can feel good about our food and where it comes from.

 

[Bodnsoul]

I would be worried if I began to get too nonchalant about slautering animals I had raised. I have hunted since boyhood and have raised several animals for meat and taking life is never pleasant. I try to be humane, to have reverence and thanks for the life that will nourish my own. I have always felt that just because an animal will become our food does not mean that it should not enjoy the best life possible. I try to provide a good life for these animals for the time they are with me and they often do become friends. So I feel I have a responsibility to the animal to give it a good life, a humane death, and to live my life in a way that will respect their sacrifice. That is the best I can do and I know that their life with me was better then the life they would have otherwise had if they went to a factory style meat farm.

 

[VeganChick]

Hello - this is my first post here and I'm in a world of confusion. I tried to find a site that might help me in caring for my soon to be rescued factory farm hens - We have built the necessary areas for 4 or so to be happy in. And the friend who has a friend will rescue them any day.....

But here I see that many of you are discussing slaughtering them? "Culling them".... "processing them" - sounds like avoiding the word kill alot. hummmm.....

I am vegetarian for 6 years (vegan for 6 months) and have done quite fine without eggs and without meat..... I don't understand why you would put yourselves (or your animals) through this terrible ordeal? It sounds like everyone here feels awful about it - but then try to justify it? Isn't that hard to do when you feel in your heart - that it isn't necessary? After all, we don't need flesh (to live)....

Just a question - curious to your response.....

Oh and these few hens I will be adopting are from a "unit" of a quarter million slated slaughter this weekend - They've outlived their "productivity". Life's cheap in the chicken world - isn't it?

 

[Riparian]

Quote:
Nobody here is "trying" to justify it. We belive different than you do, we belive we need flesh to live. We have made that choice and there is no need for justification.

Just because you say it dosent make it true. Just because you belive strongly in a particular ideal dosent mean it is the be all end all.

Other people have different views than you. You are going to have to accept and live with that fact.

Understand that I respect the Vegan philosophy a great deal. What I respect more is an adult making an informed, educated decision on weather or not he or she should eat meat, as I have.

I choose to kill and consume meat. You choose not to. I have spent hours as a young adult thinking about the need to kill for food. I am at peace with my decision. I love my animals and I treat them with respect. I choose to slaughter and eat them. Why? Because I am hungry. Its my right as a human at the top of this food chain.

Neither one of us is "right" even though you belive you are and we are wrong. Its just the way it is.

Good luck with your battery hens. They are lucky to have found you and your home. You will find all the information you need to care for them here at BYC.

Maybe you should stay away from the meatbird section of this forum.

 

[greyfields]

I certainly have lots of co-workers who I consider good friends who would agree with your perspective. I just simply do not share it. I feel you can make ethical arguments for your stance and for one of eating meat, both. So, therefore it comes down to personal lifestyle decisions, rather than philosphical ones.

If anything, the people in this forum deserve a lot of respect from both side of the argument. They are making the decision to produce, at least in some part, the meat they use for food. They have the moral high ground over people who buy it on foam trays covered in saran wrap, who simply are avoiding teh whole issue... not to mention perpuating the industrial farming system.

So, I would post your questions about ex-battery hens in the general section (Everything Else Chicken). People here have adopted ex-battery hens and can give you some tips.


Finally:

 

[gypsygirl1421]

What a great post! Slaughtering your own meat is never easy, but at least you know that that animal was valued and loved and that is had an honorable and humane ending. Knowing where your meat comes from is nice in that you know you are not supporting the less humane treatment that may occur at a factory farm or slaughter house.

Veganchick, each to their own. Just because people slaughter or cull animals doesn't make them bad people. Everyone here loves their animals. I think its odd that you don't eat eggs! I think of eggs as my chickens gifts to me for loving them so much, or their thanks for the strawberries, or watermelon, yogurt, stale cookies, cereal, chopped up apples, broccoli, sunflowers, dog food, oranges, melons, squash, shredded carrots, flowers etc, etc, etc they get for being so darn cute.

What would happen to all the animals if all of a sudden everyone stopped eating meat?There wouldn't be enough room to plant their food as well as ours so one of us would have to starve. YOu couldn't keep horses because hayfields would have to be turned to growing food for the billions of people. Meat and dairy cows, goats and sheep would't be able to graze because every bit of land would have to go to food production. Just things that I think about....

 

[VeganChick]

gypsygirl1421

What would happen to all the animals if all of a sudden everyone stopped eating meat?

I am assuming that we would also stop artificially inseminating them. Animals, pigs & cows & such, really arent "rabbits" - for instance cows generally have a calf sometimes as infrequently as every 2 years - now, it's every 9 months so they can continue to lactate.
Pigs don't mate again either till they have fully raised/weaned their young - but now, they are impregnated every 6 months.... So - that's the first thing that would happen. They'd stop being artificially bred -

Also, "if everyone stopped eating meat" - I doubt that it would happen "over night" - this process of awareness - either about the many health problems of eating meat, or the environmental issues in "growing" animals for food - the manure lagoons, methane gasses, deforestation, ground water contamination, water use, etc. - All this takes time to discover (and prove) - by then I would think there would be a slow, but steady decline in demand - Then factory farms with billions of animals would cease.... I would imagine - Land and resources would then convert to gow the plant based foods necessary to sustain life - I would hope with more diversity too- as we've become a mono-culture in what vegetation we grow now: corn....

Wouldn't there be more than enough (and at a cheaper price) (?) as animals consume 8 times more weight in plants as they "make" in meat....? I think that's what the UN and World Health Organization has been at issue with - There is starvation...... But ironically, more food than ever...... Distribution is the cause - it's all going to feed animals so the richest countries and it's people get to live "high on the food chain" so to speak.

That's one possible scenario....

 

[greyfields]

I am not a vegan by any stretch. I proudly eat and sell our own meat, milk, eggs, cheese, demi-glace and pretty much everything I can get my hands on. I'm a glutton. I love food and odd parts of animals deep fried in lard.

I totally agree that the argument "If we stop eating meat, what about all the animals?" is pretty commical. A vast ammount (I believe majority) of grain crops in the US go to feed animals on feedlots. If this were eliminated, and animals were gone, we would not starve. If anything, we'd eat higher quality meat, less often and probably be healthier for it.

With all that said, please be warned that any spamming of PETA propoganda is specifically prohibited on these forums. I would say a vast majority of people here are conscientious meat eaters, are not 'ignorant' of a Vegan's views and don't need 're-education'.

Also, finally, let's keep the thread on track. I'll start a new thread shortly we can comment on.

 

[greyfields]

See here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=577535#p577535