Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[hillfloweranch]

YEAH its its those same people that "need" all those poles and harvested wood for their products!

yup...I try to ignore it...but sometimes gets me mad. At least my birds are happy healthy and treated well before they are "AX'd"

cant' say the same for commercial birds or for people, for that matter...LOL

 

[Elke Beck]

Darn I was trying to capture the quote you responded to...because it is true. Many people have told me they prefer to buy their chicken in the store. Many have given me SH** for raising chickens and turkeys and killing them for food. Usually the guilt trip..."how do you not get attached?" or "how can you kill an animal?"

my usual response is I raise them for food, it doesn't mean that I don't like them, they are fun to watch and have around, I enjoy them, but life is a cycle everything has purpose, I am so appreciative that I am able to be a part of it. We all have a function yet people are so far removed from ACTUAL LIFE I don't know if they really understand what preservation and conservation really mean.

Now I understand that this kind of lifestyle isn't for everyone and that's totally fine, but I really wish the environmentalists, vegetarians would stop with the guilt trips!

I follow the Starving Off The Land blog, and there has been a lot of discussion about how just about everyone who chooses to kill their own meat or even meet the animals they are going to eat seems to get the same reactions from their fellow meat-eaters. They act like there is something disgusting, unethical or shameful about taking a DIY approach to meat. The message behind questions like "how do you not get attached" or "how can you kill an animal?" is "there is something wron with you!".

I have started being rude to the people who tell me that they would never eat at my house because I eat my own chickens, and saying, "Good! More for me!" I am not ashamed of anything I do to raise my own food, and my homegrown chickens are high quality meat that is better than anything you can find on a styrofoam tray in the store. I am not going to beg people to try it!

 

[hillfloweranch]

I follow the Starving Off The Land blog, and there has been a lot of discussion about how just about everyone who chooses to kill their own meat or even meet the animals they are going to eat seems to get the same reactions from their fellow meat-eaters. They act like there is something disgusting, unethical or shameful about taking a DIY approach to meat. The message behind questions like "how do you not get attached" or "how can you kill an animal?" is "there is something wron with you!".

I have started being rude to the people who tell me that they would never eat at my house because I eat my own chickens, and saying, "Good! More for me!" I am not ashamed of anything I do to raise my own food, and my homegrown chickens are high quality meat that is better than anything you can find on a styrofoam tray in the store. I am not going to beg people to try it!

Here ! Here! when I ate my turkey last year I swore I would never buy another store bought turkey again, if I could help it! So i plan to raise my own turkeys every year and since it's easier to raise several than just 1 or 2 I figure I'll donate a few to local shelters.

 

[off-grid hen]

where did you get your plucker, cones and scalder???

I rented it from the place that I buy my feed from, the same place that held the chicken harvest class. $25/day.

 

[sharron]

I know what you mean. My father is a logger and sells utility poles and other wood products. When people from an urban or suburban area come to where I live and talk trash about loggers, or say that no trees should be harvested... I know a lot of logging operations now totally rape the landscape and cause other environmental problems. My dad practiced sustainable forestry. He was a better conservationist than any "summer person" could ever dream of being. Then when you visit their house they have wood furniture and use paper products. My dad has a bumper sticker that reads, "If you object to logging, then use plastic toilet paper." People have no idea. They think they're being "green" by using corn plastic plates instead of the petroleum based ones. Just wash the dang dishes, it's better for everyone.

The ones who are the worst to me about processing these birds are not vegetarians. Many veggies at least say to me, "at least you're giving these animals a better life". When (meat eating) people are offended by hunting, I always ask them, "what do you think that deer has eaten it's entire life?" Then, "What has that CAFO cow you ate for dinner eaten its whole life?" "How did both of them live." For me, I do this out of respect for the animals, as ironic it may sound to some.

I picked up the equipment. My plucker, cone stand, and scalder are all set up for tomorrow.

like ron white say, you can't fix stupid

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: true story!

 

[kacklinkelly]

Here ! Here! when I ate my turkey last year I swore I would never buy another store bought turkey again, if I could help it! So i plan to raise my own turkeys every year and since it's easier to raise several than just 1 or 2 I figure I'll donate a few to local shelters.

Love this idea! When I get a little braver/experienced, I want to raise a turkey for our holiday meal. That might be next years project
after my incubation project this year and then our next batch of meaties in the fall. Told DH that I've been searching for freezers on craigslist
to keep our future home grown meat in. He's actually in agreement. Boy, have we come a LONG way.

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Like someone said upthread, I actually get a better response from my vegetarian/vegan friends. Mostly, though, what I hear is "I just couldn't do that." To which I usually answer "not everyone can. But I know too much about the commercial poultry industry to not raise my own when I can."

Somewhere in this Meat Birds ETC forum, someone said his/her standard response to "How can you kill an animal?" is "Waal, it's kinda hard to eat them alive..." Someday I'm gonna have the ovaries to give this response.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

LOL Wax! now that would be barbaric eating them alive eh! bawahhhahaaaa

 

[Gofygure]

Yesterday I processed my rooster of over a year after he decided that I was his mortal enemy. I have some cockerels in the brooder and another batch of eggs due to hatch soon, but it will be a few months before I have a rooster strutting around again. Hopefully my poor hens will use that time to grow some feathers back!

It was sad to see him go (I always get attached to my breeder birds,) but at least someone got a sweet deal from the whole thing.