Farm Dreams

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"How Can You Bear to Eat Your Own Animals?" A Question I Am Often Asked

Some months ago we were discussing our little farm with some new friends. At the time, we still had our pigs, although their appointment with the humane butcher was drawing near.

Our friend (let's call her Mary) said that she could never eat one of our pigs. Even though she would not be at our house in time to see the pigs, the thought that we had raised them and then had them killed would make it impossible for her to eat one. She requested that if we ever invited her over to dinner, please don't serve her pork.

Okay, I said, we could have chicken instead. But when Mary found out that we slaughter our meat birds ourselves, she was even more horrified. She could never eat our chicken, either.

"Well," I said, "at least our animals have a wonderful life and a quick and easy death compared to the thousands of chickens or pigs crammed into factory farms where they lead horrible lives and have even more horrible deaths."

"Surely not the ones we buy at our local grocery store?" said her husband (whom we'll call George.)

"Absolutely!" I replied. (In our area, unless you buy "natural" or "organic" meat from one of two specialty stores, you can figure than any meat you buy in any grocery store comes from factory farms.)

The time is drawing near when we may be hosting a meal at which George and Mary will be present. I have agonized about what to serve. They've refused to eat our chicken or pork. We don't have any of our own beef (yet), but would I really go to the store and buy "mistreated" meat just for them when we have a freezer-full of our own humane, pastured meat?

For a rare change I was on Facebook and saw a pop-up that appears because of things I have told FB about me. I got a glimpse of something about a major meat producer mistreating pigs before it disappeared. So I went searching on Google.

There I found a movie for which I will include a link at the bottom of this post. I'll give you two warnings in advance:

1) It's on a website called "ChooseVeg" whose goal is to convert you to vegetarianism. I am not and will never be a vegetarian. I believe ChooseVeg is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Yes, their featured factory farms and slaughter houses treat animals in such a way that makes me glad there is a Hell--and hope there's a special corner there reserved for every person who appeared in this video! But there is no law that says animals MUST be treated that way. And if you argue that everyone can't raise their own animals for meat like we do, I'll agree--and encourage you to check out the many farms that are humanely raising natural meat, milk, and eggs for conscientious consumers.

2) The other warning is that the video is extremely graphic. If you're like me, you'll probably be clapping your hands over your mouth and exclaiming in horror, all the while thinking longing thoughts of Hell! But if you ever intend to eat a bite of meat (or eat an egg or drink milk) again in your life, you owe it to your self respect and to God, Creator of all animals Who made man stewards of them, to watch this video all the way through. Especially if you have ever asked, "How can you eat animals you raised?"

I have made several decisions and resolutions:

I am no longer agonizing over what to feed George and Mary. I will unapologetically serve them our chicken or our pork. I'll warn them in advance and let them know that if that is not agreeable to them, they are welcome to bring something from home.

And then I'll encourage them to watch the video. Ignorance may be an excuse--until someone tells you the truth. There is no excuse for willful, blind ignorance of the truth!

I'm not buying any beef (while we grow out our steer) in grocery stores unless I drive all the way to one of the specialty stores and pay their exorbitant prices! Those prices are worth a clear conscience. I will picture our happy, content animals as I drive an hour there and an hour back--or I'll fix pork or chicken instead!

I'm also going to get my husband to watch this video so he will understand why I keep insisting he pay the price for organic milk (which we can buy locally) until we have our own. And I'm going to be his faithful assistant in building our milking parlor.

Our heifer says, "Now go watch this video, Meet Your Meat!"

After you've see in, I believe you will understand how we can bear to eat animals that we have raised and taken care of--precisely because we have raised and taken care of them!

This is one way we fulfill the responsibility of stewardship given to all human beings by God the Creator when He commanded Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to "rule over the earth."

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." New International Version (1984)

This is called the Cultural Mandate, and we are doing our best to fulfill it as stewards of God's Creation. What you saw in that video is the antithesis of the Cultural Mandate. God never intended for human beings to do that to His Creation. It is that simple.

Tags: Raising, animals, for, meat

1 member likes this

Comment by Abitcrunchy on March 18, 2012 at 4:23pm: Each individual has to grow up and do their own research. Bottom line is, our creator put here on this earth every food and medicine our bodies and other critters bodies require to maintain good health.

To understand, we have to first accept that we've been fed a bunch of lies by the food and drug industries.

Once ya get past that, it's all quite simple. It's the circle of life....my vegetarian and vegan friends all freak out about it too. Funny thing is...without my bunny poop and chicken poop - those VEGGIES they love to love so much -- would not be so nutrient dense. But heavens forbid we kill a plant and actually eat that... even go so far as cook it! ;)

I say they need to grow up, look at history (the real history, not the lies taught in public school textbooks) and stop watching so many food and drug commercials. A good dose of reality will be good for some, but educating the masses and expecting them to use logic is sometimes not doable. Or so I've found. :(

Comment by Herbert Arce on March 19, 2012 at 7:38pm: You have to take a life to sustain your own. when you eat fruit, you eat the seedpod (think eggs). Same goes for things like peas, beans, grains. You deny a life yet to be formed. when you eat a green, you keep that plant from growing and eventually producing seed, usually when it is young, as it is more succulent. Like people and animals, plants get sick (blight and mosaic virus, etc.) need to eat (Poop), drink need a 'social life' (pollination). I myself will never become a vegetarian. Too much of the food offered as an alternative is highly processed, even though it contains 'natural' or 'organic' ingredients. I will no longer eat any store bought meat either. that video made me cringe.

Comment by Jodie Westwood on March 20, 2012 at 8:46am: We raise and eat our own angus - one steer a year. I have been to butcher shops and behind the scenes and it is gruesome. I very rarely eat store bought meat and as much as I would love to eat out, just bear can the thought of eating processed food. Friends shake their heads about us killing a steer - but it is raised with care, all animals at our farm are considered "Happy" and they should be. But we do have a use for them or at least most of them. Some just eat and poop. We get a little sad when we have to load up that animal for the butcher (which is also humane) as we have grown fond of it. But occasionally there is the whew!...glad he's gone too. Yesterday two of my friends had food-poisening over the weekend from store bought fresh chicken. I havent had much success in raising chickens for consumption.

Comment by Pat Barr on March 20, 2012 at 10:45am: Instead of buying "meat birds", I just buy straight run. They take longer to get to butcher size, but you don't have to feed them so much, and you don't have the problems with legs etc. (actually mine free range starting about 3 months so is probably a lot less feed instead of "so much feed"). Plus, I think they haven't had their genetics changed so much as the quick growing meat birds.

I've never raised meat birds, but suspect my free range roosters taste better too.

Pat

Comment by Jodie Westwood on March 20, 2012 at 12:16pm: OK Pat - what age do you butcher? And - I guess I would have to learn how to clean one. I dont have a problem with the insides - I do ok with that - its the outside. Do you have to pluck every feather?

Comment by Pat Barr on March 20, 2012 at 12:37pm: I usually wait until they are 6 - 7 months old (the hens should be laying full sized eggs)... then I butcher as I need for supper. I'd rather butcher one at a time then the old flock of roosters. I have a bad back, and to spend hours butchering cleaning etc. isn't there in me anymore. I always butcher before they are a year old though.

I pluck all feathers, then scorch the pin feathers off over our gas stove. I pluck chickens and turkeys, but skin ducks and geese. You can skin chickens (and turkeys) also... it's just that I can pluck them faster and easier than skinning.

I know most people do all the roosters (or toms, ganders drakes etc.) at once. I don't have any problem with them eating more grain (because I don't put out much from spring green up until 1st frost in the fall), so doing them as I need has always seemed easier. I do hang them after I dehead them for as long as it takes the water to heat up. I also age them in the refigerator from after plucking until it's time to cook (or even over night).

Pat

Comment by Pat Barr on March 20, 2012 at 12:40pm: If you submerse them in almost boiling water for minute or two, the feathers come right off. (why saying I let them hang until the water heats up sorry)

Pat

Comment by Jodie Westwood on March 20, 2012 at 1:43pm: I am asking something gross now - how do you kill? I've heard wringing neck (tough), hatchet chop (best) neat prick behind ear and bleed to death (humane?). I just plain have an issue putting another bird on the table. Tough as toenails. It has to be in the way I am doing the final act.

Comment by SusanLea2 on March 20, 2012 at 1:52pm: Jodie, it's crazy, isn't it. It makes you want to ask people, "Oh, so you eat your beef alive?" :D By the way, we've never done Cornish Cross, either. I don't know what breeds you've tried, but we've had excellent luck with Naked Necks (Turkens) which were the first ones we ever did. We also had good luck with Freedom Rangers, our second batch. Loved the Naked Necks, but they are so sweet and personable and individual, it's harder to kill them. :(

In order to learn how to slaughter, scald, pluck, and cut up the chickens, I offered my husband's and my help to a local man who mentioned that he was going to butcher 50 chickens over the weekend. I literally said, "Would you like some free help?" He thought it was wonderful. He had a whole team of people, and we worked about 5 hours. They even gave us 2 chickens as a thank you.

So when we did our first batch, we bought 2 road cones for killing cones & a turkey fryer to heat water to scald them in, rented a chicken plucker ($25 a day), bought clean muck buckets to put ice and water in, and teamed up with our son and daughter-in-law. It really wasn't bad at all, but my husband is the official slaughterer. Here's a how-to post on butchering chickens from my blogger farm blog. It was from our second batch, the Freedom Rangers, when we had learned a few things. We did all the work, just the two of us and didn't rent a plucker. We spread the work over several days, doing 10 chickens a day for two days, then 4 the last day. That was because of the heat; we could only work from 8 to noon and then had to quit.

Pat, we just got a straight run of four different dual purpose breeds (only 16 total), figuring we'd have about 8 roosters for the freezer. I'm always willing to give the nicest rooster a chance, but so far both of mine have rewarded me by turning vicious and attacking me. We had a terrible time plucking our three ducks that we did because we let them go two weeks too long, and they had sprouted tiny new down. :( I tried skinning the third one, but made a hatchet job of it. Awful!

And as long as I'm on here, thanks to all of you for your comments. It's encouraging to me to get these glimpses of sanity and know other like-minded people are out there! Herbert, your comment was really encouraging to me and makes it worth the time I spent figuring out how to post this! :D

Comment by Pat Barr on March 20, 2012 at 2:36pm: I agree with the turkens (plus they only have half the feathers of any other breed). If I was planning on raising just for meat, I'd buy 25 turken roosters (all the hatcheries I deal with always have the males much cheaper than straight run or pullets). They get to a good size, and they are very easy to clean.

Guess I've (at least since I moved back lol) been lucky with roosters. I've never had to send one to freezer camp before I was ready for supper.

I've been thinking about it also. The roos I had problems with as a boy were all confined. (chicken coop with a good sized run, but chicken coop. And, I'm not sure ((plus can't remember lol)) that there was enough space per bird.) I'm wondering if the roos y'all are having problems with are free range or confined (eiher chicken tractor or coop). I know if you don't allow enough space (for any animal, to be perfectly honest, when I still worked and lived in the city, I had to watch myself when I was crowded too much in a store etc.) they will get agressive. (I still prefer if I'm going to a "big store" to do it on a week day ((and that not being a payday)).)

I'm still interested in what breed (s) and if they were free range on confined.

Pat