How to butcher a chicken and not feel guilty?

[LinckHillPoultry]

Quote:
You said you avoid going into the mean rooster pen, how do you care for them? feed and water? What if one has an injury and needs to be put down? will you let it suffer or do what needs to be done? sorry for being so blunt but as a livestock owner, yes chickens are livestock, you need to be responsible for the care in all respects. Being sad should have been something you thought about before the time comes.

Steve in NC
Haven't bought poultry from a store in many years

Steve, I care for them and everything. Trust me, I am not a cold hearted person, and as I mentioned, I am an animal lover. The waterdish is in a spot where I fill it up every day. I feed them. What I meant when I said that is that I go in for care and everything... they are not birds I would go in the pen to sit with and pet. They haven't been injured recently, but if they were to I'd take care of it like any other one of my birds, split them from the other birds and give them spoiled time in which I let them free range.

I would've thought by now that everyone knew that I would never mistreat or abuse an animal. Like I said I am not a cold hearted person and I care for my birds, if I didn't I wouldn't have any.

 

[dancingbear]

You might look at it this way: Birds raised in a broiler house don't get nearly as nice a life as your birds do. If you are a meat eater, like I am, there's nothing wrong with taking responsibility for the life and death of the animals you eat. When you buy one a the store, you are still responsible, because you are creating the market for it. Every one you buy creates need for another to be produced. You just aren't seeing it done. Sort of like closing your eyes while pulling the trigger.

As far as the emotional attachment goes, especially to roos, here's how I see it: About half the eggs hatched are roos. I only need about 1 roo per 10-15 hens. More than that creates chaos, hens being over-bred, chased all over, feathers ripped out, bare backed, bald-headed, nervous wrecks, which is bad for egg production, and bad for the hens. They are not happy living that way. Neither are the roos, constantly fighting and competing, squawking and carrying on. If you separate the extra roos from the hens, they have the torment of knowing they're out there and can't be reached. Sometimes they still fight each other in confinement, sometimes not.

To solve this problem, we decide which roos we want to keep for breeding, and eat the rest. I thank the spirits of the birds for providing our sustenance, and promise that the lives will not be wasted.

The day after the excess roos go to freezer camp, it's a whole different world for the remaining birds. They're calm again. There are happy, contented chicken noises all around. When I see the difference it makes in the rest of the flock to get rid of those extra roos, it makes me feel much better about my decision to eat them.

As a bonus, you have home raised chicken in the freezer, which, if these are not meat breeds, should probably be cooked in a crock pot or pressure canned, and you will have nourishing and delicious meals.

Good luck to you, I hope you can find a way to be at peace with providing your meat/ridding your flock of extra roos. (especially mean ones, I never keep the mean ones)

 

[MaineChickens]

As much as I am against some of the animal rights groups, there are some very good videos of normal operations in commercial broiler houses and slaughter. Those images in my mind help me to do "the deed" and not feel guilty about it.

Plus, the fresh homegrown chickens in my freezer just taste so much better. Store bought, or home raised, they both died for my table. At least the birds I butcher myself I know were killed humanely and had a good life. My chickens get to see and eat grass and bugs unlike the broilerhouse birds!

 

[Poler]

I do slaughtering for a job, and I go through this every time that I do it, but I realize, that We, as human beings are on top of the food chain and we didnt climb up this way just to eat vegetables. We are required to do it in such a way as to not torture the animal, but we have to do it.

 

[dancingbear]

Another thing to consider is that in the process of growing food crops, it not uncommon for animals to die. Fawns get caught in farm machinery every spring. They're hidden in the tall grass, and get run over. It's pretty gruesome. Same thing happens to a lot of others, too, birds, mammals, reptiles. That's not even getting into the use of pesticides, herbicides, and habitat destruction. Just because it's not meat doesn't mean nothing died to produce it.

Not saying "don't grow food", that would be absurd. It's just another thing that most people aren't aware of, in the production of all kinds of food.

 

[Chuntgray]

We just killed a roster, are first one he was not very mean and I like him. He ate a lot of food and it made no sense to keep. We only want eggers, It was hard we did it fast afterwards we knew we did the right thing. After you do it it is not that bad. Cindy

 

[Mahonri]

A couple of scriptural passages to think on.

"For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance."

"Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly"

and then this:

"Wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need"

I have hunted deer and we have used them in our want.
I have harvested chickens and pheasants and we have used them sparingly in our want.

You can either:

1. find them another home
2. continue to live with them.
or
3. Harvest them for you and your family.



I love chickens.

They are delicious.

 

[BJ_BOBBI_JO]

I also cant kill my pets AKA chickens either. I know of a lady who gives her extra roosters away. She knows they will be butchered but at least she dont have to see and do it or even know about it.

I eat chicken but not my own. I cant kill and eat something that I have looked in the eye and taken care of. It just seems so harsh and abusive for me to do to the pets that have come to trust me and even jump up in my lap for attention like my 1 chicken does. We dont kill our other pets like cats and dogs so why should I kill my fowl pets? It seems I get a lot of put downs because I cant kill my fowl pets.

But I do not put down others who do kill their chickens I just cant do it myself. Id say dont do it it you know it will make you feel guilty. Everyone is made differently and not everyone has the emotional ability to kill God's creatures and rip their guts out dressing them. Everyone is different and that is just how it is. Dont let others push you into butchering the chikens if you dont feel comfortable in doing so.

You are not alone there are other fowl owners who dont kill their fowls. What works for some (to butcher or not) may not work for another so do what wroks best for you and your family.

Also you might want to consider if you could actually eat it or not. When I was a kid they butchered all of our chickens and I simply could not eat it. It was revolting to eat something I saw alive and moving around and helped take care of. It literally made me sick.

 

[cassie]

My philosophy is this. If they were in a natural setting something would be eating them. Very few animals in the wild die in their sleep of old age. I fail to see the moral difference between a coyote eating the chicken and me eating it. Particularly since I buy the feed.

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

If anyone has read the book by Barbara Kingslover "Vegetable, Animal Miracle" she talks about the whole idea of butchering the turkeys that they raised. Reading about how they call it "harvesting" instead of "killing" helped me put things in perceptive when we harvested our 16 meat birds earlier this year. Although, I will admit that I'm not looking forward to the day that I have to cull out one of my hens I think I would have an easier time culling out a "MEAN" rooster.