Has getting to know your ducks changed your mind about the freezer?

[zzGypsy]

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if by "as" you mean "in the same way as", all good here.
if by "as" you mean "as much as", well, you would be wrong to believe that those of us who do eat some of the animals we raise appreciate them less. the very fact that I know I will end an animals life to sustain my own makes me deeply grateful to that animal, and makes me take great care for the quality of it's existance while it is here. do not imagine we kill and eat them because we do not appreciate them. quite the opposite is true.

 

[Oregon Blues]

If someone chooses to be a vegan, good for them. I won't try to tell them what they can or can not eat, or criticize their choices about food. However, I would like to get the same consideration in return.

If you choose to be a vegan, please do not try to force your diet or your views onto me. Do not tell me that I should only eat what you approve of, or tell me how I am allowed to prepare my food, or what type of diet I am allowed; all according to your dietary laws.

If a person feels they must tell others (people that they don't even know) what they are allowed to eat, they need to discuss their control issues, perhaps with a professional.

 

[zzGypsy]

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x2 and

 

[FarmrGirl]

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Dusky... I compartmentalize my "layers" & "breeders" from my "meaties" and it works pretty well. It's never easy to kill them and some birds are easier to do than others, so I just process less of the birds that are difficult for me.

For instance, I raise the Cornish Broilers for meat and I keep them in a chicken tractor (because they could never move fast enough to evade a predator - in fact, they never move far from the food bowl... LOL!). When I move the tractor each day I say, "OK MeatBirds, we're on the move so keep up." Those particular birds don't have a great deal of personality so they're easy not to become attached to. But I also raise free-range Muscovy for meat and no matter how hard I try to stay detached from the "HarvestDucks", it still takes an emotional toll on me at the end of the day.

No matter how you look at it, it's never really easy (I reckon that it really shouldn't be). But I know the birds are raised and processed humanely, that they're managed naturally without being pumped full of medicines and other chemicals, and I know exactly where the food I'm putting in my body is coming from. So I guess it just gets down to lifestyle choices.

I'm thinking about processing geese too... that's gonna be really hard for me. Maybe I'll just wait a little on that one