Hello all. I am new to chickens in general but have fallen in love with them since getting my 4 layers. I live in the city but am very connected with nature and love doing things that make me feel more self-sufficient, so between these birds and my garden, I've started to feel that way and I'm really happy.
I recently have started browsing the Meat Birds ETC threads and it seems like raising a few meat birds (just 4-5 is all I have room for) would be a great way to be more self-sufficient, more educated about the food source, and would help me feed my family.
However, I come from the suburbs - a place where 99% of the people have never had a farm animal, and where the people are very adamate about animal rights and such. Just to put things in perspective, my sister is a vegan, and every person I've brought up raising meat birds to has said something like, "I can't believe you would actually kill and eat a chicken you raised!"
My reasoning for wanting to do this is the same as most of yours. It's fresh food and you know the source. You can know the animal was treated with respect throughout its life. But with that said, I'm still internally struggling with the idea of killing the birds. It's just really different from the way I was raised to treat animals, but at the same time, if I keep buying my meat from grocery stores I'm likely supporting much worse treatment of chickens.
So, how have any of you who didn't grow up slaughtering animals deal with making the leap? Or, if any of you have struggled with having to slaughter chickens, how did you get over it? How do you rationalize it with yourself internally?
I recently have started browsing the Meat Birds ETC threads and it seems like raising a few meat birds (just 4-5 is all I have room for) would be a great way to be more self-sufficient, more educated about the food source, and would help me feed my family.
However, I come from the suburbs - a place where 99% of the people have never had a farm animal, and where the people are very adamate about animal rights and such. Just to put things in perspective, my sister is a vegan, and every person I've brought up raising meat birds to has said something like, "I can't believe you would actually kill and eat a chicken you raised!"
My reasoning for wanting to do this is the same as most of yours. It's fresh food and you know the source. You can know the animal was treated with respect throughout its life. But with that said, I'm still internally struggling with the idea of killing the birds. It's just really different from the way I was raised to treat animals, but at the same time, if I keep buying my meat from grocery stores I'm likely supporting much worse treatment of chickens.
So, how have any of you who didn't grow up slaughtering animals deal with making the leap? Or, if any of you have struggled with having to slaughter chickens, how did you get over it? How do you rationalize it with yourself internally?