M
Member 482121
Guest
Well, I have recently read the conclusions of studies conducted on decapitated rats. There have also been some reports on decapitated people (before the guillotine was abolished as a cruel means of executing criminals) by doctors/researchers who observed executions. All these studies and observations seem to show that death does not come immediately as the head is severed, but only after at least 30 seconds and at times up to 60 seconds after decapitation. I assume that those 30-60 seconds while the brain is still alive must be horrible. Someone here pointed out that when snakes are beheaded their heads remain alive and conscious for more time than that, as they can perceive the presence of an object in front of their face and try to bite it. And, the poster wrote, considering that birds are quite similar to their reptilian ancestors, chickens' heads may remain "alive" and conscious for a longish time. Look, ultimately death is death and almost always painful. If others do believe that beheading their chickens or cutting their throat is humane, then let them do it that way. But I have beheaded chickens in the past and I have seen their eyes blink and their beaks open and close in what I thought was an expression of intense pain and terror. So, when it comes to MY chickens, who trust me, follow me around, and (some of them) come close to me to be petted, I can't bear the thought of making them feel that pain and that terror. That's why my wife and I first pet the chickens until they are calm and relaxed, and then hold them over a large planter filled with dirt. And I shoot them in the back of the head with a .22 pistol. I do it safely, of course. Their cranium literally explodes. The brain, the "receiver" and "interpreter" of physical pain is instantly destroyed. There is no chance of pain or terror. I understand that not everyone will or can do it this way. But it is MY way, and I know deep in my heart and my brain that that is the best possible way for MY chickens to be transformed into the food that keeps us alive. Yet I still dread the arrival of the day when I will have to do this. I enjoy hunting, but I did not raise the wild animals that I kill, they do not trust me, and they are not held prisoners in a pen from which they can't escape. There is quite a difference. But I don't feel joy at the death of my prey. I do apologize to each animal that I kill and honor them by making sure that every morsel of their flesh becomes our sustenance--without any waste. And in a way they become part of me and I part of them when I absorb their vital flesh in my body--as God (or Nature for non-believers) has planned eons ago for all animals and plants when He decreed that the life of one being is based on the death of others.
