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I think you just have to make some boundaries. We never name the animals destined for the freezer (unless it is a food related name). I then make my hubby do the dirty work!
If nobody can stomach it, then you could always have the butcher do it! I think Kuntrygirl said it cost her $60 to have her ram processed, and I find that very reasonable. Especially since it leaves them doing the dirty work
I can surely understand your feelings Mandy because I felt the same way until a few years ago. This is my story.................
A few years ago I was faced with a VERY aggressive ram and it was all my fault. When he was just a baby at a few months old, I spoiled him by spending a lot of time with him. I rubbed his head A LOT which I later found out was a NO NO. That head rubbing turned in to to him thinking that I was a playmate and that I should play harder and rougher with him and I didn't. He would come to my hand and head butt my hand in an attempt for me slap his head. A few times I did but I noticed that he was seriously playing. After months of this behavior, he decided that he would just head butt me whenever he wanted to. Well that lead to him backing up and charging at me and hitting my leg with his head. I would scold him when that would happen and he would back off. Well, the behavior got worst. He started waiting until I turned my back to literally head butt me in MY rear end. The first time he did this he caught me off guard. I thought nothing of it and then he did it again. After that, I knew that it was UNSAFE for me to turn my back on him. I would continue to scold him but at the same time, I would watch my back. This aggression got worst because he still wanted to play. I tried penning him up by himself without his ladies and this seemed to work because when I let him out, he stopped wanting to ram me. After a few weeks, he was back to his old ways. Then one day, a friend was outside in the yard building something for me and before you know it, my ram charged him and head butted him in his back and rammed him into a chain link fence. Well my friend had a big knot on his head when it was all said and done. They called me and told me what happened and I said that was it, he had to go. I did all that I could to correct the problem. I knew that if I kept him, then my life and the lives of others would be in danger. So, before they found me in the chicken yard dead due to my ram head butting me and me falling on the ground and landing on a tree stump, I chose to slaughter him. I knew that I couldn't give him to someone because he would have killed them and I didn't want that on my conscious for the rest of my life. So, on that same day, they loaded "Junior Boy" up and hauled him off to the butcher. I cried like a baby when they told me he was loaded up and ready to go. But there was no other choice. This ram was my favorite. He had a name and all but the roles changed and he somehow saw me as another RAM and he wanted to head butt like 2 rams do. This was unacceptable.
I was depressed all day long. I had them take him in because I couldnt be a part of that process. Well, they took him in on Thursday and the butcher explained that he would be processed on Friday and that we could go back on Saturday morning at 7am and tell him how we wanted the meat cut. Well, I was a nervous wreck all day and all night. I woke up early that morning and was ready to go. We got there at exactly 7am. They bought my ram out (a slab of meat) and put him on the butchers block. Just watching his body being brought out and placed on the butchers block was unbearable for me. I began to cry. My friends saw me crying and ordered me to go and get in the truck. I did as such but was only there for a few minutes until I re-gained my composure. I then went back in and watched the meat being cut and I cried some more as I watched them cut him up. It was definitely an experience. I cried like a baby right there in the butcher shop. My baby was gone. Ever since then, I have learned to do what I have to do for safety and to live. So, now when I have extra rams, I try to sell them early so that they don't develop the same behavior and I also have them processed for me. I know that I have a certain ratio of male to female newborns and I know what I have to do if I have any extras. I feel that I am lucky to have an abundance of animals that I can use for nourishment and survival, so this is why I process some of my animals.
The decision to process my boy was very difficult but I had to.
And Gracie, yes that 's the price. And you are also right when you said that meat that people raise does not contain who knows what like meat in the store. So, I'm happy that I am blessed to have meat on the table.
And just like the extra roosters and male ducks. I cannot do the deed. I'm a whimp. So I enlist someone else to do the deed. When that's done, I go outside and pluck feathers. I'm not brave enough to do the first step.
Back when we were going all self suffieicnt and such I was so proud of myself for raising all our meat. Well I am squeamish about meat anyway and I just never could eat any of them. The only meat I eat is ribeyes and boneless pork chops. We hunt deer and fish ALL the time and I just cannot make myself eat any of it. It's all mental and I blame my mom for not LETTING us eat wild game when we were growing up, but she was the same way about meat so here I sit all tough and rugged and unable to eat wild game LOL.
