Humanely killing smaller birds

[jesirose]

Hi all,

I have what may seem like a weird question, so I will explain with some background. I own 3 dogs and for their entire lives they've been fed a raw meat diet. In the past I used to buy "feeder" chicks and small dressed rabbits from an out of state farm, which is no longer operating. We have got some land now and in addition to our laying hens I want to get some roosters and more hens so we can have the "feeder" chicks the dogs liked. We'll also be raising rabbits for the same purpose.

I know how to process a full grown chicken or rabbit, but for humanely killing a day old to 2 week old chick that won't be plucked/skinned/etc I have read of the CO2 method. If I use this method, is the animal in any way unfit for another animal to eat? My gut says no, I'm just not 100% sure, and I don't know of other ways to do it that end up with a whole animal like they got before.

Otherwise, does anyone have any other suggestions? The person I used to buy them from is no longer available so I can't ask them, and most of what I can find online is for when people are culling for disease and just throw away or bury the animal. I'm not super keen on cutting their heads off, but if that is better than the CO2 method I can do it.



Note: Just in case anyone is concerned - No, the dogs will not try to kill and eat the live chickens or hens or rabbits - A. our dogs don't hunt, they just eat what's given. B. Our dogs have lived with our laying hens for over a year and the only problem we had was one accidentally squished 4 week old chicken when we first got them, now all the hens and dogs live peacefully. C. They're not even on the same property as the new animals will be.

 

[Eggcessive]

Let's see a baby chick sells for $2-3...couldn't you just buy a package of chicken or hamburger at the store? I feel a lot of people might think this is a little cruel. I love my dogs, but I couldn't do that with my baby chicks.

 

[jesirose]

We can buy chicken at the store, but we don't know where it comes from, what methods they use. Right now we spend at least $200 a month on chicken from the store JUST for the dogs (Oh, and that's just for meat & bones - I then have to drive to the asian supermarket to get the feet, necks and organs.) I'm positive we can spend a lot less by doing this ourselves, and we want to raise the chickens anyway. We aren't going to be buying live chicks and then killing them immediately, we're going to have a lot of hens and raise the chicks ourselves. I've done plenty of math that indicates we'll cut our budget drastically, plus then we can have some adult birds for ourselves.

I'm not sure how you can say it's cruel when I'm specifically asking about humane methods. Unless you're trying to say feeding animals to other animals is cruel in which case I would ask... This is the meat bird section right? Where people here raise and kill birds for themselves to eat? Just checking...

 

[5pugs]

e same purpose.

I know how to process a full grown chicken or rabbit, but for humanely killing a day old to 2 week old chick that won't be plucked/skinned/etc

Not sure why you would want to kill a day old to 2 week old bird. Why not grow it full and get the meat from a grown bird?

 

[bryan8]

Personally I would give them a whack on the back of the head with a blunt object such as a broom handle. Fast, easy, humane, and no blood or cut off heads.

This is what I used to put down quail and it worked great. A chick is just a little smaller than a bobwhite

Bryan

 

[jesirose]

Personally I would give them a whack on the back of the head with a blunt object such as a broom handle. Fast, easy, humane, and no blood or cut off heads.

This is what I used to put down quail and it worked great. A chick is just a little smaller than a bobwhite

Bryan

Thanks Bryan, I'll consider it.

 

[naadarien]

Not sure why you would want to kill a day old to 2 week old bird. Why not grow it full and get the meat from a grown bird?

That is pretty much our plan as well. The dogs will eat whatever we don't/can't/prefer not to (too tough maybe?).

I get it. The chicks are a whole and balanced meal. If the dogs can't eat an adult bird's spare parts (feet, beaks, etc), I get the point of them being young. Otherwise, not so much. I used to own snakes and while I love rodents in general, the mice I fed my pythons were food, not really cute balls of fluff. OTOH, food chain or not, I wouldn't have been able to feed my cute teddy bear hamsters to my snakes. I'm weird like that.

I don't imagine it is too difficult to break the neck of a week old chick. The proverbial toothpick. That seems like it would be quick and painless. Shouldn't be too much blood unless you broke the skin.

 

[RJSchaefer]

I know some cull doomed baby rabbits by giving their head a good whack on a hard object. Seems a pretty quick way to go.

ETA: We're considering raising guinea pigs are dog meat. There's a thread about raising them somewhere here on BYC, by ohiogoatgirl. They're a lot easier to care for than rabbits. My rabbits have been nothing but a headache.

 

[redrooster99]

Nothing against u or your methods bit that seems cruel.

 

[Hollow Point]

Anyway any kind of animal is killed as quickly as possible is humane whether you break it's neck, take it's head off or put a bullet between it's eyes, dead is dead instantaneously. Suffocating, drowning, starving or beating an animal to death is not humane because the animal is suffering before death.