Excellent post and excellent point. I've heard statements from folks who were "tazerded" and the experience was extremely painful. You comment above is why, even if I have help with the butchering/processing, I am always the one to dipatch my own chickens. I hate doing it, but at least I know that it is being done as quickly and with as little stress and trauma as I a capable and that I've learned from the errors I've made.
I applaud BigTone for wanting to make the experience as humane as possible. I think that is the #1 concern for most of us on this forum but the goal should ultimately be to make it as stress free for the chicken, rather than simply stress free for us.
I agree. I've sometimes entrusted the culling to someone who generally knows better and is against animal cruelty, only to find that 'since the animal was going to die anyway, they experimented with some new cull methods' (which failed and resulted in the animal being put down as planned, but after suffering). I was initially angry at them, but then angry at myself, because really the fault is mine. My animals, my responsibility, my duty.
I'd rather do it myself and know how it went, and why. You never know what people are going to do to your animals, and too often it's the craziest things you can imagine. I truly didn't see a lot of the bizarre incidents coming. It didn't make a difference that I'd known the people for all my life either... Unpredictable at best.
My first deliberate cull was a hen run over by a vehicle, disemboweled but alive. I broke her neck. It was very fast, at least. Worth doing for those who are going to behead them and are worried about missing the stroke. But, that said, some will experience that nervous system over-reaction and run or fly away after beheading, and they may do the same after neck-breaking, so always best to restrain them. As NEChickenNoob's post showed. No method is 100% all the time, unfortunately, and it's pretty much always down to human error. Adequate restraints would take the fail rate down significantly because that's pretty much always what goes wrong --- the animal moved at the wrong moment.
I raise my animals as pets, basically, so they are trusting and calm when cull-time comes, they don't stress due to human contact. I find this easier and kinder than keeping a distance during their lifetimes so you have to deal with a terrified animal come cull-time... I know that option's not available or feasible for everyone, but it works for me. They say you can't name it or it becomes a pet, but I know the names of all the roosters etc I've eaten, at least out of the home-grown ones, of course.
Best wishes.
