Open Letter to the People who FREAK OUT because I eat my chickens.....

[chooniecat]

I find you a bit defensive and I understand WHY but understand these people are more than likely just ignorant and you can nicely explain WHY you do what you do. I found that it was the angry "meat eaters" that turned me against buying ANY commercially grown meats because they DO seem to dislike the food animals thus they DO treat them rough just to jab the complainers.(I have been a complainer!!) my point IS I grow my own now and I adore my food animals and treat them to the kind of life I believe they enjoy. Have an abandoned roo in the crock pot right now and he had a heck of a pampered week here.(by some peoples standards!)

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Well, it isn't excusable. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and see that meat doesn't come from a grocery store rack.

I have a friend who understands that, but still can't bring herself to eat anything from my farm. At work potlucks she always asks me if the meat came from my place (it always does) because she has seen pictures of some of my animals, she relates to them too much. The difference is she knows she is being completely irrational. She just doesn't want to become a vegan and so must play little head tricks with herself in order to eat.

 

[Beekissed]

you can nicely explain WHY you do what you do

Been there, done that...over and over. Still get treated like the Manson family for killing my own meats. These same people have generations of hunters in their families. They own beef cattle that they fill their freezers with. It is only because I actually raise mine and am a woman....this seems to be the problem. For some reason they seem to believe that only men kill animals and any woman that does so is just a heartless monster! Or maybe its because their cattle are all out in the fields and not in their own yards...who knows?

Whatever the reason, they feel free to judge and harangue me over this subject....and I feel justified in educating them in just how unreasonable and stupid their arguments are.

I'm really done being nice over the subject....as is, it seems, the OP. I applaud her post and feel she is justified in her opinions. Feeding the world or not, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.​

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Been there, done that...over and over. Still get treated like the Manson family for killing my own meats. These same people have generations of hunters in their families. They own beef cattle that they fill their freezers with. It is only because I actually raise mine and am a woman....this seems to be the problem. For some reason they seem to believe that only men kill animals and any woman that does so is just a heartless monster! Or maybe its because their cattle are all out in the fields and not in their own yards...who knows?

Whatever the reason, they feel free to judge and harangue me over this subject....and I feel justified in educating them in just how unreasonable and stupid their arguments are.

I'm really done being nice over the subject....as is, it seems, the OP. I applaud her post and feel she is justified in her opinions. Feeding the world or not, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

The cattle are most likely not butchered "on site" but sent out. To some that makes a big difference because they aren't the ones doing the actuall killing. Not much difference to me but I guess if it helps them sleep at night......

 

[Gridrebel]

I raise my own meat roosters - cornish cross and my own layer hens which I don't plan on eating anytime soon. I take great pride in raising my birds completely free range if they desire or they can hang out in their barn. I know what my chickens eat and how they behave and how happy and protected they are. My problem is I took my cornish cross to a processor and what I got back were 5 to 6 pound carcasses that resembled the rubber dead skinny chickens on comedy tour. As I had butchered my own last year and they were between 8-13 pounds dressed out, I am very concerned. I complained to the processor that the meat I picked up was not mine and they insisted I was incorrect. I can’t exactly put a chip implant in the roos nor do a dna test but I need to find a way to "mark" my birds so that I know what I pick up is what I turned in. I can hardly stand the thought of eating these "unknown" birds, not knowing how they were raised. When I took my roos in for processing, I was complimented by everyone around me about how clean and beautiful my birds were and how big they were. My birds would have won a beauty contest hands down. Some of the other birds were filthy and stinky. They were handled roughly by their owners shoving them into the cages. I gently placed mine in the cages and talked to them the whole time. As I am a newbie and I do care for my animals, I am probably more sensitive. Anyway, I was thinking of how I can mark my birds so that I know they are the same ones I turned in. Tattoo is out. I thought about actually clipping the tip of each left wing but I don't think that would feel too great for the baby chicks. Any ideas?

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Any markings will be removed by processing. The only way to be sure is to do them yourself. That is one of the reasons I learned. I wanted to make sure the birds I ended up with were mine.

 

[booker81]

I suppose I am defensive, as I'm only doing something that is natural as an omnivore, and am treated as if I am a heartless, cruel, bloodthirsty maniac.

When I butcher my birds, I take care in handling them gently so they are calm and quiet to the very end. When I hunt, after a kill, I thank and admire the animal, and treat even the meat and carcass with care...more respect than I'm given by some humans.

Unfortunately, the folks I deal with don't want to know where their food comes from, and bluntly state so. That type of willful ignorance is what frustrates me, they don't care about their food, but harass me because I DO care, and i choose to do something about it

 

[95yj]

so pretty much this post was just an excuse to rant at a bunch of people who probably don't deserve it and may not even exist. A ton of people on here are always complaining about how people "freak out" about processing birds, i would say that maybe it it does happen to them but they also say it happens here, on this forum, which i have never seen. Maybe if you go around bragging about it, or talking about it in the wrong place (public high school, learned that one quick) but then its your own fault. I actually get alot of support from most people i tell or who hear about it. Posts like these really annoy me cause this is supposed to be a forum where you can discuss practical ways of humanely raising meat chickens in your backyard, not someplace you can go to complain for attention. IDK maybe people do give you crap for processing your own birds, it happens, its happened to me, i explain exactly why i choose to raise my own meat and sometimes they become more accepting other times not, thats life. If it bothers you so much then maybe you shouldn't be raising meat birds, except that i don't really think you have that huge of an issue, if PETA is protesting on your front lawn then send me a photo. I'm sorry but i just don't think people care that much...

 

[Wifezilla]

If you send out your birds for processing could you request they leave the feet on? You could them mark the birds by removing the back claw as chicks. They do this to domestic mallards in some areas so people know they are not wild mallards.

 

[al6517]

I like this thread and the views of the OP and others, I am glad to see there are more of us than I thought, I was getting tired of getting ragged for being a responsible flock owner, by the liberals do-gooder's. Living a nice comfortable self reliant country life sure is nice and will surely come in handy when the sky does finaly fall LOL.

AL