There's alot of free meat out there

[RhodeIslandRed5]

Well my girls will never see a chopping ax from me. I love my chickens and I'll never have the heart to kill them. I'm not against people eating animals, I just don't have the heart to butcher anything myself. Especially if I've come to know and love it. I am against animal cruelty, I'm HIGHLY against eating horse meat. But I do draw the line on some animal freaks who say don't eat chickens or their eggs.

 

[bigz1983]

I think education is key here. Until reading this thread, I had no idea that chickens were ground up live for dog food or whatever. And how are you going to get that information out there? People buy processed chicken at a grocery store and it looks all sanitary and pristine and they have no reason to question how it got there. Dog food comes dry in a bag or moist in a can, people don't think to ask questions. The dog food industry certainly isn't going to put an ad showing this process, they show happy, healthy, glossy dogs enjoying their product. I have no answers. Just a troubled soul at this point. But neither am I going to chop my own roosters and process them. I tried it once, without going into detail I will just say that I learned this is a skill I lack. I hire it done by those who have the tools, experience and skill to do it right.

Off topic but is your Avatar a Golden Campine?
I had some before. They are kind of rare.

 

[Chef JimmyJ]

A trend toward eating local, small farm raised meat is underway. A lot of it is because of the Restaurant Biz. Chef's wanting more flavorful meat, started moving away from commercial Boxed Meat and toward meat they found locally.

A good example is commercial Pork. Up to the 60's, Pork was raised all over the country on smallish farms. The Farmer sold to commercial processor and the Hogs had a Train or Truck ride to their final destination. These hogs were a whole range of Breeds and ate varied diets, depending on what the farm grew or got at a good price. They grew slower and put some Fat on. Pork you got from the Grocery Stores was Great. It was Red, slightly Marbled with a layer of Fat on the outside.
By the 70's the largerest and more powerful members of the Pork Counsel wanted to go the route of Factory Farms, like Beef and Poultry. Playing off the Health Craze, a Long, Lean, Fast Growing Hog was developed that had Light Pink Meat. The, " Other White Meat! " marketing program was launched and Pale, Low Fat, No Flavor, Pork became mainstream, putting a lot of Small Pork Farms out of business.

Some 30 years later, Restaurants are serving small farm raised Heritage Pork and the Return to buying from Small Farms and Small Butcher Shops that source locally is returning. This same trend is seen with Local Grass Fed Beef and Small Farmed True Free Range Pasture Raised Hens.

If people are willing to continue Paying the Premium Price for Great Tasting Meat, there will be growth in Profitable Small Farms and many here can pay for their Hobby buy selling Meat and Eggs from their home or Farmer's Markets...JJ

 

[outsageous]

If offered horse or dog meat, I'd take it in an instance. I've always wanted to try both! My parents had friends from the Phillipines, who insisted that dog is good meat, and that meat from dogs with black fur tastes the best. I'd only ask that the animal had been treated well every day of its life, given the best life possible, and then humanely killed with as little stress as possible.

I never agreed with the whole mindset of "oh no, it's a cute cuddly animal, we can't eat it, but the ugly animals...oh yeah, kill 'em, who cares, they're ugly and dumb." I don't understand why people think the life of a dog is more valuable than the life of a pig or chicken. All three of them feel happiness, sadness, pain, stress, etc. All three of them have the potential to be a good pet or companion animal (pigs are as smart or smarter than dogs) on one level or another, and none of three are sentient or on the same level as humans. Just my two cents.

Aunt Agnus...agreed. This thread has been very fascinating, and I love hearing everyone's viewpoints.

If all of their lives are equal, what makes them unequal to a human’s? Just because you are a human, you have experience as a human, or you can actually understand humans? I don’t understand that. You have no idea the complexity of their emotions or whatever, because you have never been one of them. Just because you don’t understand or relate doesn’t mean they’re worth less. If some other beings with a much more advanced mind & society come & try to make contact with us, they won’t be able to understand us either. They’ll think we’re just not equal to them, & we just aren’t “on the same level.” All because our language or expressions aren’t up to par with theirs. Nice.

 

[Stiletto]

Well my girls will never see a chopping ax from me. I love my chickens and I'll never have the heart to kill them. I'm not against people eating animals, I just don't have the heart to butcher anything myself. Especially if I've come to know and love it. I am against animal cruelty, I'm HIGHLY against eating horse meat. But I do draw the line on some animal freaks who say don't eat chickens or their eggs.

In another post you referred to these as people who "worship animals". Now you're calling them "animal freaks". The word is "vegan". (Unless you were thinking of Buddhists when you mentioned the worship of animals? Anyway, Buddhists don't worship animals either.)

You say you're against animal cruelty, but you don't really care how the chickens you do eat are raised and slaughtered. The double standards bewilder me.

 

[NewBoots]

Remember, this is the meat birds etc forum so if you are totally against eating meat you are probably in the wrong thread. Not trying to offend, just an observation.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

guess it depends how we are raised and the types of meat and animals we view as food.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Off topic but is your Avatar a Golden Campine?
I had some before. They are kind of rare.

She is one of my Easter Eggers, so no telling what she's crossed with! I will look up Golden Campines to get familiar with them. I ordered 18 EEs and 6 BLs. Two of the EEs and one of the BLs did not survive shipping. Two of the chicklets were cockerels, one was certainly an EE, not sure about the other. Two EEs were lost to predators, most likely a raccoon. So I should have at least 12 EEs left .... all of which look a lot like this one! (I am not sure exactly how many I have to tell you the truth, lol. My math never comes out the same!)

 

[RhodeIslandRed5]

I don't think it's right to eat dog meat. There are meat-eating animals: chickens, pigs, rabbits, cows, ducks, stuff like that. Then there's working animals like cats, dogs, horses and donkeys that I don't believe people should just eat like that. Those animals were put here to use otherwise: transportation, guard animals, to be trained to aid the disabled and stuff like that.

 

[Chef JimmyJ]

So much passionate discussion on, This Animal is Food and These are Beloved Pets and Family Members...It has Nothing to do with an Animals Beauty, Usefulness, Our Religious Beliefs or any other reason we eat one and love another. Man and our Technology sets us at the TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN. When there are no other choice, when it's all said and done, Survival of the Fittest and Smartest, determines what is eaten and what is not...

To the Starving Man...People are Food as well!

The Donner Party, Winter 1846-7. Migrating from Missouri to California became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Starving they decided to eat those that died and eventually the sick...Of the 87 that started the trip, 48 survived. This terrible tragedy is considered one of the greatest in the entire record of American westward migration.

Not a choice I hope I will ever have to make...JJ