Why is this so hard for me?

[speckledhen]

Thanks for asking about Zane, Spotted Crow. Without hijacking the thread, he's getting therapy and baby aspirin (when he's not sly enough to spit it out, LOL). The joint is still very stiff and wont straighten out all the way. It's been three weeks or so and we thought we saw his toe move a tiny bit a couple of times, but no progress otherwise. Not sure what will happen or when. If we have to let him go, it will be really bad, for both me and DH. We have to do what is best for him, just like ninjapoodles did with her hen. And we'll second guess ourselves when and if we do, naturally.

 

[brandywine]

It was hard because you were making a decision for her benefit, and acting as her proxy on whether it was better to live as she was or die humanely. That's by nature an emotional calculus, and so it's going to take its toll.

Butchering meat birds or surplus roos -- you are making a practical decision for your benefit -- it's more on the order of whether I trade or keep this car.

It's a less stark version of the difference between my experience shooting a deer to eat (heartfelt apologies to the deer and reverence for his spirit, but I sleep okay and eat hearty) and making the decision to euthanize a dog (heart shatters into a million shards and never goes back quite right again).

 

[MagsC]

You have a heart, thats why.

 

[debilorrah]

AW!!!

Iv am so sorry. It's hard to let go any animal you have an attachment to.

 

[MissPrissy]

I know how you feel.

I cried when we culled Curly. He is still in the freezer. I am not ready to cook him yet.

 

[12 Acres]

I'm sorry you had to deal with this but I strongly feel tha tyou did the most humane thing.

 

[tfpets]

I'm sorry you did what had to be done to prevent the other chickens from causing her any serious suffering. Up until that point, it seems you were using your heart to decide that she was still in a good place, but enough was enough? You have a kind heart, and a conscience, thats why its so hard. Some birds get a little deeper under our skin than others too, even in the large flocks,and all purpose flocks. Thank you for helping her on her way, I hope to be able to make the right decision when the time comes for any of my pets also. Tina/tfpets

 

[chickiebaby]

Ninja, my dear, I feel your pain. Slaughtering birds to eat them, part of life's natural cycles, is very different than making a decision based on complicated intra-birdie issues. And deciding that a bird's life has ended because you always thought of it as food - well, that's different yet again from having to face the facts about animals' behavior in the face of handicaps that we, as people, would like to overlook.

You already know, of course, that you done right. Sorry, though. And glad you have a classy gentleman around to do it when you couldn't.

Nature sure is red in tooth and claw - and talon.

 

[wegotchickens]

Ninjapoodles, those 'special needs' birds bring out the caretaker in us. Can't be helped. And it's hard to set the caretaker part of us aside when hard decisions are called for.

You did what was right for the bird. Let that comfort you, as well as the fact that she's no longer suffering.