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Ah sorry, I misread what you were asking!
As far as whether it is hard to kill animals you raise, it is hard for me. I haven't had to kill animals for meat yet, but I work at a job where I sometimes gas rats and mice. I have pet rats and mice at home, and rats in general are very, very close to my heart! They are intelligent and loving animals, and I have had rats who come when called and follow my husband and I around the house like puppies. The rodents I work with, I often watch grow up from pinkies to adults. 99.9% of my job is making sure they are healthy, have food, water, enrichment, and care. I then have to turn around and kill some of them, and yes, it is hard. But, the reason I can personally do it is because I strongly support the cause behind their deaths, and their lives and deaths benefit both humans and animals medically (it is in the area of 'pure' research/non-commercial research), just like many can kill meat birds because they so strongly support their reasons for doing so.
If you stuck me in the same job in the area of something like cosmetic testing though, I would refuse to do it because I do not personally support that, and because I feel the quality of care and level of employee training is often much less than what our facility offers. Our standards of care are better than most pet rodents recieve, and our facility adopts out any animal we can, and also donates our dead rodents to feed zoo and aviary endangered animals and birds. I very much like that we aren't wasteful with our animals. Similarly, some here would not be able to kill birds in a highly commercial setting (and some would). As far as the killing technique goes, that does not bother me. It is very humane, and I wish vets would use it (vets still tend to do a heart injection, and that *is* painful and stressful for rats. I really, really dislike that method!)
I must admit that the mice don't get to me, but I don't even have to be the one killing the rats to feel depressed for the day. But, I still treat the mice with the same ammount of care as the rats. Similarly, for some of my coworkers, it is just 'all in a day', but yet they provide the same level of care as I do. I just find it interesting that level of bonding with the animals alone does not dictate care level.
As for killing young animals, that aspect doesn't bother me personally. I love it when I can provide an animal with a full, long, and rich life, but a quality short one is just fine with me too. That's just the way I am with humans as well, as I am never more saddened by a child dying than I am an adult, and in many ways, am more saddened by an adult's death due to their often more extensive network of people who are affected by the loss. Most feel very differently than I do.
