A really good friend of mine is verging on about 50 years old.. He was married once, had a son, got a divorce, then eventually re-married to a woman who's just now in her mid 30's. (
) They have a son that's about 12, and a daughter who's about 6.. He actually has a 3yo grandson and a 6yo daughter..
Anyway, his two youngest have grown up around livestock. Commercial meat goats, in particular.. Commercial meat goats have this really bad habit of dying. Frequently, in fact.. It's usually only 1-death/goat, of course
, but that goes across a lot of goats, so there's a lot of death.. That's just kinda how it is with commercial meat goats. Now, if one of their goats were to become injured and had to be euthanized, well...they butchered and ate it. It didn't matter if it was a kid or an age-old, broke-down doe. It got et'.
They also had some really nice, registered breeding stock.. That's where most of the income was, too..
He told me that one day, when his daughter was about 3, they had some visitors out there -- money in hand -- interested in buying some of the show stock. They were walking around in a pen when the little girl saw one of the does stretched out in the dirt.. She slipped up on the doe, loooooooked her over, then WHACK! -- kicked the fire out of her.
The ol' doe jumped up out of a dead sleep and ran away as fast as she could.
The little girl walked back over to where her dad was talking to their visitors, folded her arms up, and stood there with an awful scowl on her face.. The lady visitor asked her "Awww, what's the matter darlin'?"
She looked up at the lady, pointed back out at the old doe and said "I thought we eat."
Apparently, time stood still for a while...
Just as the visitors were beginning to process what the little girl had said, my buddy jumped in and said "OH HEY, come on over here and lemme show you some goats in this other pen...."
All kids are curious about death. Farm kids get over that curiosity a lot quicker. As a result, they seem "weird" in comparison to other kids. I don't think I'd fret over it too much.
OH!...same guy was also talking about a doe he thought he might have to shoot. Not because she was injured, but because she was a PAIN to be around and was teaching a whole other pen full of goats to be ornery. He said he absolutely COULD NOT catch her, and that she was smart to any kind of chute, trap, pen -- whatever. He was totally serious about putting her in the freezer on account of it, too.. I was there, listening to this conversation mind you...heard it with my own two ears.
Son, then about 10yo: "OOOOH! Can I do it?!?"
Buddy: "NO. Absolutely not!"
Son: "Oh, c'mon! Why not?!?"
Buddy: "Because I want her shot
in the head, and last time I let you do it, you hit the shoulder and wasted a bunch of meat!"
Son: "OK, but I'll hit it in the head this time! I promise!"
Me:
