How to gently persuade someone to kill and eat pets?

[Beekissed]

I tend to keep larger flocks...around 30 or so...so the decision is easier to make, as you become less attached to them as a whole. Now, I will admit that, tough cull Queen that I am, there are a few gals that "miss the cut" for awhile until I can no longer justify keeping them. I still have a Black Aussie that is going on 5 years old that has slowed down to nothing this winter....but....well...you know!

If I had small kids who had grown attached to a certain chicken(s), I would let them pick out one each to keep~make them care and feed them personally on a daily basis~ and agree to turn the others into food. Just having to do all the work to keep them may just decide the chicken's fate....few kids are into sustained pet care.

When you get a newer, younger flock, maybe they will find one of those they find adorable and you can slowly cull the older faves. It happens and kids are fickle...and sometimes you wind up owning a few very old and fat hens that are no Earthly good except to eat and act cute. For some people, that is enough to justify keeping them around.

In the end, all the favorite chickens die....everything dies one day. This too is a good lesson to children and helps them accept the inevitable truth of the fragility of all life. One can really turn such things into valuable lessons about human life spans as well, if you seize the opportunity. One can honor a bird by transforming them into a tastey meal or one can let them die and be worm food....either way they become food for another.

 

[Cass]

Speaking as an educator, I think allowing each child to pick out one they want to "save" from the stew/soup pot and having them take care of their pet is one of the most ingenious ideas I've heard in a long time.

THEN make it clear that future birds are going to be used as food unless they are chosen as a replacement "pet" in the future (and the current pet goes in the pot). That allows for each child to change their mind in the future, as children often do.

My brother once raised a pig that his, then, 5 year old named "Dinner"..."Din" for short....and Din it was her whole life. Talk about dealing with the reality of food production at a young age...LOL

 

[Cass]

oops, duplicate post removed by poster

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I find that it helps to look on my chicken flock the way I look on the produce I grow in my garden. I tend to their needs right from the start when they're seeds, sprouts & tender little seedlings. I provide the best care I can give, lavishing time & attention, providing all the water & nourishment they need. I delight in their natural beauty and take pride in their growth & appearance. It's a source of enjoyment to just look at, I like to hang over the garden gate and feast my eyes on how beautiful it looks. But I don't see any discrepency with the care I give my plants and the relish with which I consume them at harvest time. In fact, it would be a shame & a waste to just let it all grow, mature, ripen -- and then just wither on the vine.

As others have said, there's nothing wrong with keeping chickens as pure pets, whether it's just a few or a whole flock. I'm sure I'll always have a few that will have earned this designation. And as long as I'm blessed with other things to eat and enough spare change to scrounge for their feed, I don't think it's a waste. It's like telling someone that they're being wasteful by not eating the pony their kids have now outgrown.

 

[1K18]

When i was young, we had pigs. We were allowed to name them as long as the names were food related. We had Ice Cream Sandwich, Oreo, Doublestuff Oreo, Butterscotch, etc. However, i never really had an issue with eating them in the first place.

I'm getting chickens in March, and my extremely sensitive daughter will be taking care of the layers- feeding, watering, and i'm sure naming them. I have promised my wife that at the end of their days, we do not have to eat them (though, i may decide when their days come to an end). We will have some meat chickens also, which, as soon as they are able, will go into a chicken tractor at the far end of the yard, far away from the layers and my daughter. Some morning, Mommy will take her somewhere fun and when they get back, the freezer will be full.

 

[PunkinPeep]

For me, i feel i am respecting my chickens by giving them names, loving them, and then butchering them when the time comes. I'm allowing them to fulfill their destiny and allowing their lives to go to their full use....if that makes sense.

I even put their names on the packaging in the freezer.

But i'm not sure how you explain all that to a child - especially if that child imagines this chicken to be a human with feathers. They're just chickens, no matter how cute and interactive they are. They're not people.

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
X2

Hatching is so much fun and DH and I have already agreed that the additional roos will be only grown to eating size. We have dual purpose breeds for this reason. Now I don't know about the original pullets we started with. I haven't really named them but there are a couple I am fond of so it might be hard to eat them.

 

[FireTigeris]

I would replace the existing flock (through attrition or selective stewing ect.) with identical looking birds in general, then 'pretty' isn't a reason to save a bird, personality is.

Mine are pets and egg-layers (or ornamental)

I would NOT let a child 'dispose' of a pet- that's the only thing I disagree with. I would make them take care of their one pet for the rest of its life. I would not let them switch, yes these are chickens but a child might think you can do that with horse or dogs or something that is not considered edible.

 

[Beekissed]

Well....chickens, by their normal purpose, are not a typical pet and have historically been a food animal....and still are if you care to count how many chicken McNuggets are consumed by children on a daily basis. By teaching them that these types of animals are food that serves a dual purpose as temporary pets, I don't think that by any way places the family dog in the same category.

Children are smart and can be taught...they often learn best by example. If you treat your flock like a cherished and well-loved food source, your children will also. If you treat them like cherished and well-loved PETS, then your child will also. If you treat your dog like a cherished and well-loved food source then, by all means, teach your child that his life is of a temporary nature as well!

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
Agree.

I just know too many people who let their children throw away perfectly good animals.

I guess processing a ex-pet would be worlds different.