Hi folks, I am have not read the entire thread but a few pages.
I don't want to encourage anyone to feel guilty - I don't think it makes sense to feel guilty - we all (except for some really exceptional people who may be mentally ill) do the best we can to be good people and make good decisions for ourselves and others, at each moment in our lives, given all we have learned and can think of - so I think it is fine.
At the same time, I feel like interjecting another view point (in case it has not been mentioned already), one I have explored for about 2 years now (I am 52) after a lifetime of eating meat - I am trying a vegan diet and reconsidering my relationship with animals. We have dogs and a cat and a coop full of Guinea Fowl and two horses, so I am not giving up having animals in the family anytime soon, maybe never.
However, I decided to listen to my bad feelings about killing young, healthy, innocent animals to eat, or much worse (as many of you have pointed out) pay someone else to torture them in factory farms and kill them in sometimes horrible ways where they get dismembered alive on a conveyer line since industry considers it too costly to stop the line when a bolt misses its target. We don't need to eat meat. It is healthier not to. It is better for the planet, too. And it is sure as s#$% better for the animals, ha ha.
I don't know what to say about wanting a flock of only female birds. I don't have that problem with Guinea Fowl - the males can live together and the fighting is minimal - they pair up and we can keep all the males that hatch. I know that it not true with roosters and I was thinking about getting some Ameraucanas when I was still eating eggs and I was pondering about what to do with the extra roosters and decided not to. Easy for me. Sorry. I don't eat eggs anymore now. Only need the Guineas to eat ticks, ha ha.
Maybe the roosters could be paired up with hens if people would be willing to keep pairs instead of flocks of hens? I am not sure. If you eat meat, yes, killing the animals yourself is probably best.
When I found out about CAFOs and mass slaughter houses (I was so naïve for so long - thought if we can send a man to the moon we would surely treat the animals humanely - after all you would get arrested if you treated your pets the way the food industry treats animals) I first stopped buying animals products at the grocery store - bought only from a local butcher shop who could tell me where the animals came from and what slaughterhouse they use and what steps they take to treat the animals as humanely as possible (except for the killing at the end, of course); and I had a cow share to get milk and dairy products and bought eggs from local hobby farms. Now I am vegan except for the occasional restaurant steak or burger, and I still try to eat at the local burger restaurant that gets their meat from the local butcher shop I used to buy from for a while.
There are so many great choices out there now, even Hardees and Burger King offer vegan burgers now (you have to ask them to hold the cheese and mayo) - it takes effort - but if I could do it, anyone can. =]
You tube has so many recipes and even vegan athletes answering questions - it is actually easy for me now. I learned new ways to cook. Even got a great chocolate cheesecake recipe made only from cashews, dates, cocoa powder and water with raisons and almonds in the crust. I put frozen wild blueberries on the crust before the filling is poured on. Hmmmm!
Again, just another, somewhat obvious, view point when having qualms about killing animals to eat them. You can make yourself do it anyway, or maybe not. That is also an available choice. Just another idea.
