I posted this on my Facebook and got a few saying " oh, I could never do that". Made me really upset

[MelanieR]

I wasn't able to watch your entire video as I just can't, but I love the reasons and the way you did this. I admire you for your strength and commend you for your efforts.

 

[gap1956]

I personally know I couldnt even watch the video...but I understand you raise your chickens for what you raise them for...My chickens are all named & won't be seen in a pot. To each there own. If I had to kill what I ate I'd probably be a vegan...

When I was young I bottle feed our beef calf...I was sent shopping & the beef calf be came a beef steer...& one day the beef steer wasn't in the pasture & our freezer was full. I proceeded to to be ill at dinner for months & months my mother finally bought some meat & had me watch her unwrap it & cook it & that's the way it went till the last piece was gone. Now mine you I was told about the purpose of purchasing the calf in the 1st place.

Same thing with our Turkeys.
So I in away I admire your ability to detach...but I for 1 cannot.

So for all those who can't get passed killing what you eat your not alone.
I've developed a trust factor with my chickens & I couldn't bring myself to eat even 1.

GAP 1956
One Flying Low

 

[triplepurpose]

I personally know I couldnt even watch the video...but I understand you raise your chickens for what you raise them for...My chickens are all named & won't be seen in a pot. To each there own. If I had to kill what I ate I'd probably be a vegan...

When I was young I bottle feed our beef calf...I was sent shopping & the beef calf be came a beef steer...& one day the beef steer wasn't in the pasture & our freezer was full. I proceeded to to be ill at dinner for months & months my mother finally bought some meat & had me watch her unwrap it & cook it & that's the way it went till the last piece was gone. Now mine you I was told about the purpose of purchasing the calf in the 1st place.

Same thing with our Turkeys.
So I in away I admire your ability to detach...but I for 1 cannot.

So for all those who can't get passed killing what you eat your not alone.
I've developed a trust factor with my chickens & I couldn't bring myself to eat even 1.

GAP 1956
One Flying Low

I thought this comment was beautifully articulated.

But it's not about "detaching." It's about a-ttaching. The reason I prefer to kill the animals I eat myself is because I love chickens so much, including my own, it makes me feel slightly ill to eat those that I know weren't raised with the same care or respect. That is not detachment--that is connectedness. Dettachment is not being comfortable with killing animals you love while buying meat from somewhere else and being willfully ignorant and in denial about it--no offense. Most people don't like to slaughter, myself including, but many of us consider it a responsibility of being an conscious omnivore to at least rise to the occasion if necessary. But if you actually CANNOT bring yourself slaughter an animal perhaps the ethical course IS to be a vegetarian... Anyhow, this is something each person needs to examine themself, but willful ignorance or denial about where your food comes from is not a healthy option for anyone or anything IMHO...

 

[Beekissed]

I thought this comment was beautifully articulated.

But it's not about "detaching." It's about a-ttaching. The reason I prefer to kill the animals I eat myself is because I love chickens so much, including my own, it makes me feel slightly ill to eat those that I know weren't raised with the same care or respect. That is not detachment--that is connectedness. Dettachment is not being comfortable with killing animals you love while buying meat from somewhere else and being willfully ignorant and in denial about it--no offense. Most people don't like to slaughter, myself including, but many of us consider it a responsibility of being an conscious omnivore to at least rise to the occasion if necessary. But if you actually CANNOT bring yourself slaughter an animal perhaps the ethical course IS to be a vegetarian... Anyhow, this is something each person needs to examine themself, but willful ignorance or denial about where your food comes from is not a healthy option for anyone or anything IMHO...

Exactly. People who claim they "could never kill" this or that animal for food somehow build up this image in their minds that they must be super compassionate and sensitive to feel that way and those who CAN kill animals for food must be the opposite..detached, insensitive, unemotional and less compassionate.

It's just the opposite, folks. It's because I cherish the life and the actual existence and the well-being of the animals God entrusted to me that I raise them in the manner that I do, that I kill them myself instead of letting them "die of old age", "letting nature happen" (often this means letting them get sicken, suffer and die or be torn apart by wild animals...neither is a merciful, compassionate ending) or eat the tortured animals from commercial factory farms.

It's called taking responsibility for what you put in your mouth. Even vegetarians who eat eggs, cheese, milk, etc., really need to examine just where that food comes from and how that animal exists from day to day. It's not just a carton of food..it has a source and most often that source is horrifying.

Vegans? The commercial crops from whence you derive your food supply are often fertilized from the very animals you claim to love...all stuffed in buildings, living in animal hell, producing the tainted manure that grows your veggies.

To me, this is much like very small children who, when playing hide and seek, will hide their eyes and, because they can see nothing, they feel that no one can see them either. It's childish to hide behind this facade of sensitivity and compassion while taking part in the very thing that causes animals to suffer by the millions each day...we still see you back there, eating all that suffering, pointing fingers at others and feeling you are so well hidden from the fact that you contribute to animal suffering by not taking responsibility for your food supply.

 

[EricaD]

Folks on this thread have made some great points. I've had to come full circle on many of my own ignorance issues as I've delved into raising chickens. I spent years as a vegetarian. I thought I was somehow more evolved, lol. But long term, this diet didn't suit me and my health suffered (I don't believe this is the case for everyone - some do very well on a vegan or vegetarian diet, but some do not) and so I returned to eating meat in moderation.

Eventually we switched to only organically raised meat. Then we took it one step further and participated in a local grass fed beef share. As we observed the quality of our meat improve with each step, the desire to take more ownership of the food we eat was born.

This year I started to spend all my spare time on BYC and we got a laying flock. Still, though, my mind was set that I couldn't raise meat birds. As I spent more time with the chickens, I saw what delightful animals they are - intelligent, funny, affectionate, all around greatly rewarding. So naturally, my mind went to factory raised chickens and the conditions they live in, how they're treated, and I know now what life is for them (even the "free range" or organically raised birds and eggs from the store - doesn't hold a candle to the quality of life my own chickens have.)

So, next logical step? Buy processed local farm raised, pastured chickens! Well, I found several sources and have filled my freezer to the tune of $15/bird (had to drive very far for this price, however, the local farm that sells farm raised cornish x charges $25/bird!)

But...I could raise these same meat birds and they'll have a huge ranging area, the highest quality organic feed, spotless living quarters, love and affection. So now I'm planning to raise my own batch of meat birds in the spring. I'll still outsource the processing (I found a couple of local farms who will add my chickens when they do their own batches for $3-$5/bird) because I can't handle the sight of blood, and frankly, I'm limited on time and think that it's a pretty cheap price to not have to do it myself. And between now and spring I just have to prep an area for them and decide what I want to raise (DP roosters or cornish x. I'll likely do both.)

Actually, I found a local who has a bunch of 5-6 month old roos and he'll sell them to me already processed for $12/bird, so I get to taste those now and see what I prefer.

In any case, I do see it as more compassionate to raise one's own meat, let alone healthier!

 

[triplepurpose]

Exactly. People who claim they "could never kill" this or that animal for food somehow build up this image in their minds that they must be super compassionate and sensitive to feel that way and those who CAN kill animals for food must be the opposite..detached, insensitive, unemotional and less compassionate.

It's just the opposite, folks. It's because I cherish the life and the actual existence and the well-being of the animals God entrusted to me that I raise them in the manner that I do, that I kill them myself instead of letting them "die of old age", "letting nature happen" (often this means letting them get sicken, suffer and die or be torn apart by wild animals...neither is a merciful, compassionate ending) or eat the tortured animals from commercial factory farms.

It's called taking responsibility for what you put in your mouth. Even vegetarians who eat eggs, cheese, milk, etc., really need to examine just where that food comes from and how that animal exists from day to day. It's not just a carton of food..it has a source and most often that source is horrifying.

Vegans? The commercial crops from whence you derive your food supply are often fertilized from the very animals you claim to love...all stuffed in buildings, living in animal hell, producing the tainted manure that grows your veggies.

To me, this is much like very small children who, when playing hide and seek, will hide their eyes and, because they can see nothing, they feel that no one can see them either. It's childish to hide behind this facade of sensitivity and compassion while taking part in the very thing that causes animals to suffer by the millions each day...we still see you back there, eating all that suffering, pointing fingers at others and feeling you are so well hidden from the fact that you contribute to animal suffering by not taking responsibility for your food supply.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

Once you see a bunch of roosters at work doing what they do when you have fifty of them running around a person gets to where it is NO PROBLEM to butcher them. When you see pack of roosters take down another rooster and sex him to death or get in horrible, horrible fights and tear up another one that was an inocent , or the flog you and cut you and bruise you up because they are so mean, it becomes NO PROBLEM to dress them.
I love my hens and we just don't dress our hens. We will sell pullets and we sell chicken we dress out of freezer that we process at 2.00 a pound to a few individuals. We are not inspected so don't try to be large retail.
By butchering roosters it says to our flock of chickens how much we love them and how we are going to take care of them. All of our roosters are treated kind, humanely, no rough treatment with processing. We do no beilieve in animal suffering.
Our hens are thankful to us we don't leave bunch of roosters harrassing them. We end up with roosters because when we get broody hen we set her in broody house and let her hatch then eventually turn her out with our free range chickens to raise her babies. When you have 10 hens with 5 to 10 babies a piece that tends to add up to a mess of roosters that need dressed at times. Anyways just thought would say what I thought about it. I hope it helps give some more to think about when it comes to the hard thing of butchering them.
How I started learning to dress animals was because Years ago when I was in my 20's I was married to a man who had addiction to spending and allergy to work and we was raising a family and I was trying to go to college so I could earn more money when working. I got bright and decided to raise rabbits for meat. They are all white meat, tender and reproduce frequently. I thought perfect. Well my momma rabbit had babies and had 12 beautiful little sweet babies. They grew up and the other 4 mommas had 9 to 12 babies each and they grew up and we had more babies and i kept a few and everyone had babies and next thing you know I was using our grocery money to buy rabbit pellots and seemed like they ate so much food and I just couldn't dress them. They looked at me and I just cried. We had no money and it was so tough to do but after my father bauled me out I finially dressed one and I cried and cried but as the day wore on and I had dressed all the young ones 150 rabbits later. No wonder they were eating so much. I could dress anything after that and not cry so hard. I guess after crying all day I got it out. For a while I had trouble eating what I dressed then I went to chicken processing plant and saw first hand how UNCLEAN it was, and how HORRIBLE the treated them, and after that I could eat what I dressed but it took some time and lots of dealing with things for me to accept it.