Hello all, Me again. Ive got to kill my cockerals tomorrow. Sorry to sound so pathetic but I am having trouble with the whole 'taking of a life thing' and was thinking of feeding them with fruit soaked in alcohol first so they would be sensless at the moment of dispatch. Has anyone tried this? I have no problems with the physical aspect of slaughter but just dont want them to suffer...for one moment. If I thought they were insensible at the moment of slaughter then I would feel better about the 'taking of a life' bit.....a bit. Thank you all. Marie
I have no idea what that would do, or how it would effect the meat, but I do know that if you lop of their head with a hatchet they will not feel an instant of pain.
Marie, I have no words of advice for you, as I have never killed any animal, myself (and hope to God that I never have to), but I love you for agonizing about making their final moments painless! If I had to do this, I would try to find the best, easiest (for the animal, not me) way to do it, too. The only thing I can think of, is using "Rescue Remedy" (from the healthfood store), to ease their stress. We had to have an old dog put to sleep years ago, and we gave him Rescue Remedy before we took him to the vet, because it calmed him down. Good luck, I feel for 'ya!
There is ONE thing you can do to ease these guys stress. Do not allow the ones living to see the others ones being slaughtered. They less they know the better. The less they hear the better. I used to take 3 birds out of the chicken house at a time and walk them down to the slaughter area. I would take one at a time to the place of dispatch and do the deed. The other would be out of sight. The other two, then one would not witness the others being killed. It really seemed to help them, they were good until the knew it was the end for them. There is a lot of squaking and such. Just be quick and human and be sure to cut the heads off quickly and cleanly. This is probably the best things you can do.
I don't think Alcohol affects animals like it does people.But I'm not sure either.I'm glad that your sympathetic about it. Some people could care less what they feel.
My husband has an aquaintance who was drinking one day and decided to spoon some white liquor down a rooster once. The rooster wobbled and staggered around with his wings drooped and crowed backwards. He seemed to be pretty oblivious to anything much around him. So, apearantly it does make them laid back and intoxicated.
I invited a rooster to dinner myself today. I took him away from the rest of the chickens so they would not see, and hung him by his feet from a branch. I took a sharp knife and cut his head off quickly. No squawking, no pain. Killing is not something to take lightly, but it has to be done if you're going to eat them. I would suggest feeding the processor a shot of alchohol instead.
My hubby and I are thinking of raising quail for food and this is the part that troubles me. Im all for hunting, farming and all that stuff. I respect the people that do these things so we can eat. But I can't imagine having to do this. I think we as humans have strayed so far from what we are...hunters and gatherers which includes slaughterers. I think it's unbelievable that we'd have such a problem with this knowing where our food comes from. It's almost like when you see it dressed and packaged in the store, you forget that it was alive at some point. I think growing and raising your own food gives you such a respect for all living creatures and maybe then you won't throw any waste in the trash.. it can go to the dogs, or the chickens or back in the fridge... but maybe it would mean more. I think we're going to give it a swing.
Quail are much, much easier. Just a quick snip of the head with a sturdy, sharp pair of scissors and then place them in the sink. Quail are so easy that we end up doing everything right in the kitchen and make less of a mess than we do when cooking. You're right. We have moved too far away from our roots. I don't care whether you believe our roots started with monkeys or with mud and ribs - we still don't identify what we eat with a living creature. I wholeheartedly believe that people should raise their own food. Even if you don't have the stomach to butcher your own birds, or you don't have a green thumb, get in with a group of people who can and do. Swap your tomatoes for their hand at butchering. Raise their chicks to butchering age in exchange for their jams. We need to understand what it's like to raise real food, and the easiest and cheapest way to do that is to do so within a community.
