If a bird gets stressed during kill will the meat be tough?

[freshegg]

would it keep opening its mouth and ocassionally lifting its head if it was dead? I sure would feel better if it was dead.
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Those could all have been nerves. Believe me when I say I have had to dispatch many animals in 20 years of farming. I had the same upset you had each and everytime. Until I was told about the eye reflex.

 

[freshegg]

update I cooked it ate it and it was not tough.

 

[PurpleChicken]

We've culled a few birds and cooked them within 2 hours. They were always tough.

After learning about brining and aging, our meat has been a lot more tender.

My grandfather and fatherinlaw both tell me how their moms would have a live chicken
from the market that she would pick up on Saturday. Then it would disappear and Sunday
dinner would be, well, chicken. It's a mystery.

As for stress we tell our meat birds we are gonna eat them all the time and they don't
get stressed.

Seriously, if it took 20 minutes for the turkey to die I think I'd be the one to stressed
to eat it. We don't have that problem with the old fashioned stump method