How do you bring yourself to do the deed?

[ams4776]

g&a thomas :

My family just did our first batch of birds for meat. I did the killing and my kids helped with the plucking and my wife did the cleaning. My youngest son had a real hard time with the killing at first, but I had a talk with him and we discussed how we had cared for them and gave them a good life. We discussed that by putting them in a cone and getting it done quickly was very respectful and ultimately it was putting food on our table. He was okay after that. I think sometimes it is a perspective thing. I don't think he would have been able to "do the deed" ... that takes time. My wife cannot do that part. I am okay with it, becasue I know that they were raised well. the birds we get in the supermarket live like horrible animals in cages most likely. Ours got to eat grass and got sunshine and the like.

How old are your kids? Ive got 2 but i think they are to young to be apart yet​

 

[booker81]

Quote:
If you hang a chicken upside down, that seems to "stun" or put them almost to sleep. Many of the ones I process have their eyes closed. The only movement they make is after most of the bleedout is done, and the crossover from life to death occurs, with the random muscle twitches and a few flaps. At this point, they are not conscious, not really alive, just passing through. A good cut makes this go quickly, a shallow cut prolongs it. I also agree with Sundown_Farmer on the cutting of the windpipe.

 

[newchickerluver11]

I Understand the feeling of How can I you just have to detach your self from them. Just feed them water them do a general health check then leave. That is what I have to do. My Cornish X rooster came and laid by me the other day. I just have to leave and remember I have to feed my family. There is no easy way you just have to Detach yourself

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Go to them at night while they are relaxed and roosting, then put them in a cage or a crate. Then there is no "catching".

 

[Saltysteele]

you just have to do it. don't think about it, just do it.

be sure to strongly use your knife. some don't cut the heads off, we do.

just grab the head, strongly cut with the knife (there will be more resistance than you think, due to the feathers), just be sure to be in control of the knife so you don't cut yourself

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
I can respect that.

Although fish have feelings too.

The best argument for eating fish is that it likely came from the wild (although that is getting less true) and thus lived a good life.

I raise and process my own birds, but that is because I want the food I eat to live a decent life. My entire reason for doing what I do is to avoid eating factory meat. I personally believe that is an inhumane system, thus my rationale for doing what I do. If I couldn't raise my own or buy my meat from someone I KNOW does so humanely, I would have to be a vegetarian. I do slip on occasion, since I have a fondness for hot dogs at chicken auctions (my favorite form of entertainment), but in general it is something I try to live by.

So, to the OP, I would suggest you try this approach... if you eat chicken at all, you should humanely raise and kill your own, or get your chicken from someone who does. Otherwise, you are contributing to a cruel system. Sort of like a drug user is responsible for the bad things that happen in getting the drugs to him/her.

On the issue of the most humane method, I have stunned, chopped, and slit. Stunning is a waste of time. If it isn't done right or hard enough, the bird suffers more. Depriving them of oxygen smothers them. Slitting takes longer than chopping, but because the bird is generally in a cone it LOOKS less traumatic than the chop. Try hanging a bird and slitting it, see what happens. Slitting in a cone is easier on the human, not on the bird. The death throws are just hidden.

Not to say slitting is less humane, mind you, but it does take just a tad longer for the bird to die. In both instances I look into the bird's eye and can see when life leaves it. Chopping is quicker, but others are correct that the bird won't bleed out as well. If you are selling, that is an issue. If not, it's not. What's the big deal about blood? I see blood every time I cut into a juicy medium rare steak, hasn't killed me yet. It has been suggested (although I'm not personally aware it is true) that chicken with a little blood in it tastes better.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

P-Funk,
It takes a real man to be able to express and let himself feel his humane side.
Sorry about your Black Star.

 

[bucket04]

My boys are 21, 16 and 4. All three of them have helped in the processing of our extra roosters. The four year old carried the first rooster to me. We explained everything we were going to do before doing it, and he was okay with it. After a while, he got bored and started playing in the car. We processed the last three roosters was last week. One of them was aptly named "Pecker". He was a mean rooster and would attack my four year old every time he went out to play. My 4/yo was not sad at all to see him gone. (I would go so far as to say, he was happy and relieved.)

I have only processed 7 birds so far. I myself 'did the deed' 5 out of the 7 times. I didn't want my kids to have to do that yet, and my dh was at work. I can do it now with less apprehention than I had the first time, and a cone helps a LOT. The first ones were harder on me because I watched them flop around a lot at the point of death. I bought a traffic cone from HD and that was so much better emotionally for me.

Now if I could just find the nerve to put this splayed-legged chick out of it's misery. I know now that I *can* butcher creatures for meat..... but culling this bird because he'll be crippled and in pain his entire life is too difficult for me. I almost found the strength 3 times last night.... *sigh*

 

[ams4776]

Quote:
Was debatinh on letting me 5 yr old help out only prob is if he freaks noone will be there to help. Hes seen cats kill animals and understands where meat comes from. Still i dunno may be easier to ship to grandmas with 3 yr old. Dh will be working amd i promised him since we are raising from chicks he could step out on the deed.
Taking care of a sick animal has never been a prob to me. Ive helped numerous poor cats and once drove a hammer claw through a poor deers temple. Had been hit and broken back and back legs. Only thing we had and i could not bring myself to watch that beautiful creature suffer.

 

[BoomChickaRocka]

i think alot of it has to do if you grew up with seeing it. I can vividly remember the first time i saw a chicken killed, the first time I cleaned a chicken and the first time i killed one myself. After a while it doesnt even phase you.