U_Stormcrow
Crossing the Road
I'm not going to make a comment about people going soft. That's not what this is about. Nor should it be read that way. There are no victims here.
Response to processing a chicken (or any animal) that you have raised yourself is sort of like handedness - it relates to how you are wired, though it can be trained to some extent. Sit down, unpack your feelings, give 'em a good look over. Some, perhaps most, of what you feel is honest. But some portion is a learned response to modern societal expectations, I suspect you will find. Those you can cast aside as an obstruction to what needs doing.
Of course, how you raise your birds has some effect on the stregth of any emotional attachment as well - its nature and nuture both, given force by experience. SOme people can't have birds underfoot without forming those attachments, or in their laps, or name them, or whatever. If you are going to continue to have chickens, particularly if you hatch chickens (as I do, every three weeks - 6 hatched in the last 24 hours +/-), you are going to have to find a management method (including culling/butchering) that works for you - or you should give serious thought to abandoning your chicken keeping hobby.
"When the need arises - and it does - you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out - that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse." - Robert A. Heinlein
I happen to be a pretty lousy human being - its how I'm wired. People like me are needed in the tribe (much less than we used to be). For butchering, for science, for when pragmatism is required. OTOH, without people who feel intensely, who empathize well with others, its quite likely the family, the tribe, never would have grown into society.
Takes all kinds.
Response to processing a chicken (or any animal) that you have raised yourself is sort of like handedness - it relates to how you are wired, though it can be trained to some extent. Sit down, unpack your feelings, give 'em a good look over. Some, perhaps most, of what you feel is honest. But some portion is a learned response to modern societal expectations, I suspect you will find. Those you can cast aside as an obstruction to what needs doing.
Of course, how you raise your birds has some effect on the stregth of any emotional attachment as well - its nature and nuture both, given force by experience. SOme people can't have birds underfoot without forming those attachments, or in their laps, or name them, or whatever. If you are going to continue to have chickens, particularly if you hatch chickens (as I do, every three weeks - 6 hatched in the last 24 hours +/-), you are going to have to find a management method (including culling/butchering) that works for you - or you should give serious thought to abandoning your chicken keeping hobby.
"When the need arises - and it does - you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out - that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse." - Robert A. Heinlein
I happen to be a pretty lousy human being - its how I'm wired. People like me are needed in the tribe (much less than we used to be). For butchering, for science, for when pragmatism is required. OTOH, without people who feel intensely, who empathize well with others, its quite likely the family, the tribe, never would have grown into society.
Takes all kinds.
Don’t worry doctor says I’m normal.
