most humane way to slaughter?

[AZChiknGoddess]

I know we all care about our birds and do not want them to have a terror filled slow painful death. Really if you look at any way you chose to slaughter them, you need to look at how they would meet their end in nature. Is the way you choose to dispatch them less cruel than being torn apart by a predator or dying of a painful debilitating disease or injury? If you can say yes then you have done a humane job of slaughtering the animal. Regardless of the method.

 

[CrazyTalk]

And what about when a axe is involved and what the head is completely detached skin nerves neck etc.

There's nothing special about decapitation - the animal dies from lack of oxygen to the brain, caused by low blood pressure and lack of access to the blood. The same way it does when the throat is slit.


The Russians did some experiments in the 40s - they were able to keep a dog's head alive on basically a blood pump for a while - was completely responsive.

 

[servpolice]

i see,so you are saying the head is still alive and what about the body of the animal?!
Crazytalk which would you pick of slaughtering a animal if you had a choice.

 

[CrazyTalk]

The head is alive for a little while. The individual body parts are alive until they run out of oxygen, but there's nothing to monitor nerve activity (no brain) so that doesn't matter.


Pretty much any way you can do it quickly is just fine as far as being humane. I prefer severing the carotid, as it makes way less of a mess than decapitation, there's less chance of the bird damaging itself, and it's way less stressful to me than watching a bird run around with no head. Less stress means I'm less likely to hesitate, or botch the job.

That's the real worry here - when people worry too much, or get squeamish, and that causes them to hesitate and not cut deep enough, or miss with the ax, or whatever.

 

[trudyg]

Years ago an elderly friend had me help her fix dinner, starting with catching the chicken. She tied its feet together and then hanged it from the doorknob,let it hang in the dimly lit room for 20 minutes or so, then I held the pail as she slit the carotid. She held it so it didn't flap and all the blood drained into the pail and was then mixed with dog food for Fido. chicken was calm and not at all stressed. When I do this on my own, that's the method I'll use.

 

[servpolice]

It is interesting how things work and what actually happens.

 

[LindaB220]

This is a most interesting article and video. I think I'll try it next time. Wretched job with decapitation.

http://peterdickinson.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Kill-A-Chicken

 

[servpolice]

Very interesting. but that will be impossible to do to geese. XD

 

[LindaB220]

@herrdogs Yes, you can buy the chicken holder used in the video. But you can also do it the easy way and tie their legs together and hang upside down from a nail or fence or something. Let them hang a minute or two to calm down.

I really like this method and I have 12, count them, 12 cockerels. All going to freezer camp