How do you live with yourself eating the birds you raised?

[boykin2010]

i think it would b easier if you hatched eggs and new from day 1 that they were gonna end up being butchered. If you just hatch some chickens as pets and they dont have any standards ie eggs or meat then it might b harder. I would never kill a hen or rooster that i hatched for egg laying. If i hatched them for meat birds then i dont think i will try to get as attached to them as i do the egg laying breeds.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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yes I could, a chicken to me hold the same value as a dog, why should it be any different? JMHO

Just curious as to what meat you eat?

Steve

 

[eKo_birdies]

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lol call me American... but here, a chicken (ESPECIALLY a meat chicken or rooster) always has been and always will be considered livestock (for the most part). Whereas, a dog is man's (or woman's!) best friend. Chickens=livestock, dogs=livestock guardians, comprende? Maybe in China dogs=livestock.....

ETA I'm not going to make any apologies for my beliefs, call me an "ignorant American" or whatever... Having (unfortunately) seen first hand HOW the dogs raised for livestock are slaughtered (this was for a rural market, albeit only a couple of very small time "sellers") and the sheer inhumanity of it... well.. i can say it is no way similar to how I dispatch of my birds and is far more cruel than the commercialized poultry industry in America.

 

[eKo_birdies]

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yes I could, a chicken to me hold the same value as a dog, why should it be any different? JMHO

Just curious as to what meat you eat?

Steve

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Well I have to say, with my pal at my feet while I type I couldn't eat my dog. However if I was starving, instead of eating him... I would teach him to hunt things. We would work together, and to be honest a dog would hold more value in that aspect as he would also protect me from other people and wildlife. We are starting to go to the what if... but if it where a pet chicken or a pet dog.... I would eat the chicken first. No value except for eggs or meat in a live or die situation.


Now the cats on the other hand.... I would imagine if skinned and roasted over a fire.... it would resemble something of a rabbit. Riley (my dog) and I would eat quite well.

 

[chicnchic]

Yep I agree with the n"Livestock"

vs "protector/man's best friend" thing....my kids are having a similar problem with us butchering rabbits, even though it is the reason we bought the animals. Our youngest thought he was going to "trick" me into changing my mind by asking me if I'd named them yet. My reply was this: (and though it's tongue in cheek, it's my mindset...they're FOOD, not pets)
Yep I did name them darlin...Stu, Sir Fry, and Frick A. See

Staying focused is the key

I am sure that I;ll have a few hens that I won;t be able to bring myself to eat, but for the most part, the egg layers are egg layers and when I raise some of the chicks for meat that's what they'll be meat birds. Their purpose will have been established before they were born. It's all a mindset. If you can't brng yourself to do that darlin, get some Silkies and cuddle away

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

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I think your point is it exactly. When most of us lived on the land and produced the food we ate, it wasn't uncommon or uncomfortable to kill your chickens or any other animal for meat. It wasn't until we separated ourselves from the food chain by purchasing our food from artificial environments that things got weird. And it is weird that people feel uncomfortable eating their animals, this is an entirely modern phenomenon.

 

[NevadaRon]

I haven't done it with chickens (yet

), but here are some pics of my two pigs, Bacon and Sausage.

Before:

After:

I raised them for almost 5 months from weanlings. Now I have 478.5 lbs. of pork in the freezer. Last night we had pork steaks for dinner. Yum!

BTW Jeff (Brunty_Farms) I had told you in another thread that I planned to process them at about 240 lbs. - they ended up being 350 lbs. live weight, 240 dressed!

 

[Illia]

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It is all about culture. Honestly I think cattle deserve just as much respect and reserved right as a horse, but in this culture that sadly isn't so. If we lived otherwise, I'd eat a horse or a dog the same way I'd eat a chicken - Just as long as it lived a respectable life.

 

[gryeyes]

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I just wanted to say this statement really warmed my heart.

I'm an omnivore, and a lazy one. I eat what others have grown and harvested or butchered. Some day I hope to be less lazy. I've started with my own tomatoes and artichokes. Wahoo.

This isn't even the same thing but it's the closest I have come to such a moment: I always attended the deaths of my companion animals which had to euthanized, because they deserved to have me present at that moment. I have even offered, in vet hospital waiting rooms, to perform the same act for people having to face the decision to euthanize a pet but were torn by "just leaving when Spot dies." I will gladly be a proxy so their beloved cat, dog, rabbit, ferret or WHATEVER has to be put down doesn't just get the injection from a vet tech (although many, many vet techs care even more than do I - hence their choice of livelihood), but someone is there to look into their eyes and say good-bye.

I don't think I'll ever eat any of my chickens, nor will anyone else. Nobody will eat my dogs, or my cats, either. And yet I still eat chicken, beef and pork someone else has raised (however horribly) and butchered, and packaged. For I am a lazy omnivore.