eating your pet open discussion

[cricketmt]

The chickens my family raised when I was a kid were NOT pets. While we weren't huge scale, we bought 100 every spring to raise, some to replace old layers, all the roosters except the chosen few were raised as food.

While I've not whacked the head off one before, I have killed pheasants hunting. I know that I CAN do it if we needed the food.

That said, our 5 (maybe 4 depending on the sex of the remaining question mark) will be not pets so much, but they will lay eggs for us and will be treated with respect and kindness. If the time comes that it's time to say goodbye, then that will be done with care as well.

I'm a big believer in knowing where your food comes from and staying in touch with reality. If you can't stomach the idea that something had to die for you to eat, maybe you shouldn't eat that? And I was recently reading somewhere that there are current tests being done to determine whether plants feel pain. Jury is still out on that one I guess.

In the animal world--and yes, we're part of that world--quite often another animal has to die for one to survive.

 

[Blooie]

At least your pet lettuce sticks around, mine bolts!

<groan> I wish I'd said that!

 

[JJSS89]

I agree with what you guys are all saying, but the phrase "humanely slaughtered'', really doesn't make sense. I don't think you can kill anything humanely. Yeah, you can euthanize it, but taking away any being's life will never be considered humane by me. Just my opinion.

Seems out of touch with reality.

 

[pingu1]

100% agree its almost like humans dislike the fact that they are taking something elses life and than calling it humanly so that they don't feel bad if someone murdered someone and then in court said "but it was humane" is that judge going to let them off? no

I agree with what you guys are all saying, but the phrase "humanely slaughtered'', really doesn't make sense. I don't think you can kill anything humanely. Yeah, you can euthanize it, but taking away any being's life will never be considered humane by me. Just my opinion.

 

[pingu1]

Humane the word''s definition is to show sympathy, and to inflict the least amount of pain as possible. So that being said, I think humane slaughtering is possible. When I slaughter a bird, I care for its well being, and I want it to die peacefully and painlessly. That's humane in my definition of the word.

can you really murder (which is basically what your doing not that its my business) sympathetically

 

[pingu1]

I count my chickens as pets and friends. And. I would be very upset about eating them.

i agree

 

[pingu1]

[ frend ]

NOUN
noun: friend · plural noun: friends

1. a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection

I don't think my chickens have any affection for me. They like the things I provide them but they don't have affection. They are all instinct. If I fell over dead, they'd be pecking my eyeballs out within a day or so.

I don't know how my birds feel towards me but I raised them from an egg and treat them with kindness and consider them as my friends at the end of the day one person may consider another as a friend but they don't know whether that "friend" hates them but they do know its a possibility and carry on treating that person as a friend

 

[JJSS89]

Pingu,
Murder is the unlawful killing of another person. It is impossible to murder livestock or even a pet because they are not people. If you want to call killing a chicken something else besides killing then you would need to start a new term because the word "murder" is not for hire and just because you treat your animals like people does not make the rest of us murderers for eating birds.

Judges do not let people off for killing people humanely or otherwise. They let them off if and only if it is justified. People who kill their chickens do not face legal charges (except for animal cruelty) because it is inherently justified based on the fact that chickens are livestock. If you want them to be your pets or friends, that is obviously nobody's concern but your own. However, they are still livestock.

There are similarities in the way you and I raise chickens. I care for them, hatch them, raise them, feed them. I think they are adorable and striking. I go to great lengths to protect my birds.

The way in which you consider your chickens part of your family is a very, very new concept relatively speaking. So is the idea of not eating meat. The human race has been treating animals as livestock and eating meat for many thousands of years. Befriending chickens and eating only vegetarian are mere decades old as a popular viewpoint.

Worms eat dirt, chickens eat worms, I eat chickens. I am at the top of the food-chain. I am not an animal but I am a vastly superior being and so are you. If you decide to step down the food-chain a few links then that is up to you. You take certain risks by removing animal proteins.

Since you 100% agree with Liverwart that you taking any being's life is murder then I suggest you "tread" carefully and rinse your vegetables very careful to you don't hurt any gnats or aphids because they are beings too.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Pingu,
Murder is the unlawful killing of another person. It is impossible to murder livestock or even a pet because they are not people. If you want to call killing a chicken something else besides killing then you would need to start a new term because the word "murder" is not for hire and just because you treat your animals like people does not make the rest of us murderers for eating birds.

Judges do not let people off for killing people humanely or otherwise. They let them off if and only if it is justified. People who kill their chickens do not face legal charges (except for animal cruelty) because it is inherently justified based on the fact that chickens are livestock. If you want them to be your pets or friends, that is obviously nobody's concern but your own. However, they are still livestock.

There are similarities in the way you and I raise chickens. I care for them, hatch them, raise them, feed them. I think they are adorable and striking. I go to great lengths to protect my birds.

The way in which you consider your chickens part of your family is a very, very new concept relatively speaking. So is the idea of not eating meat. The human race has been treating animals as livestock and eating meat for many thousands of years. Befriending chickens and eating only vegetarian are mere decades old as a popular viewpoint.

Worms eat dirt, chickens eat worms, I eat chickens. I am at the top of the food-chain. I am not an animal but I am a vastly superior being and so are you. If you decide to step down the food-chain a few links then that is up to you. You take certain risks by removing animal proteins.

Since you 100% agree with Liverwart that you taking any being's life is murder then I suggest you "tread" carefully and rinse your vegetables very careful to you don't hurt any gnats or aphids because they are beings too.

- though I must take issue with two things. We *are* in fact animals and whether or not one is vastly superior than other species just by virtue of being a human is debatable, especially on a case by case basis as I have met many a representative of other species whom I find vastly superior to some humans I have encountered

 

[JJSS89]

morning

When I say superior I mean we are supplied with intelligence, empathy, and understanding beyond any other animal. We are animals, sure. We are the only ones that will spend incredible amounts of energy taking care of other species. Some to have as pets, some as livestock. Heck, we've even bred and perpetuated traits of other species to increase their "nobility". The domesticated horse and dog are some of the most loyal and tractable creatures on earth. Far more than some humans.