I am only typing this because I feel guilty. The retired poultry farmer from Lloc called this afternoon and completely wrong footed me by asking if he could come and "do the deed" with the cockerels tomorrow instead of Saturday.In my mind I had a few days "grace" to prepare myself for the killings, now I have less than 24 hours! Of course I said yes and with a heavy heart I have caught three of the young males and have placed them in the shed with water and in darkness. They need to be fasted before being culled, and I want them as stress free as possible before the morning.
I know I have to bite the bullet with this, the less palatable part of country life, and the extra cockerels are just a drain on my valuable feed stocks, ....I just wonder that after helping cull these pretty young males, will I be able to eat them?
Oh, God, no. How could you eat something you raised!? I gave a couple of cockrels to a friend who came over and cleaned them right there in the yard. I told him to let me get inside first. I wanted no part of it.
ReplyDeleteNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's terrible....please don't do it.
ReplyDeletei don't understand why you need to kill them.they are precious lives that have much to live for.
ReplyDeleteUgh- John, you poor thing... I know this is the way nature intended but it is something you have to prepare mentally for! Bless your heart... but keep reminding yourself how wonderful it will be to have healthy, fresh birds on the table!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I LOVE the picture of Mrs. Tweedy... that was too cute. (My FAVORITE MOVIE of all time.)
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what I think about this already...You just have to get on and do it. It's not part of (as you put it) 'country life' for everyone, but it is an everyday task for lots of folk. I believe - and I know folk will disagree - that this is just part of being a responsible poultry breeder.
ReplyDeleteI spent a decade of my childhood in a farming community, and so have developed a certain realism. Despite now being a vegetarian and generally 'preferring' animals to people, I'm quite unsentimental when it comes to things like this.
So, I choose not to eat meat, for predominently welfare reasons. But if I did, I would rather prefer killing and eating hand-reared animals that have been well cared for, rather than the poor things that you see and buy from the major supermarkets.
Sorry folks. I respect your opinions, but eating intensively-farmed meat bought from a supermarket is, I'm afraid, a double-standard. I just don't think you should eat anything that you're not prepared to humanely dispatch yourself, or are entirely aware of exactly what has happened to that individual animal during its lifetime.
Of course, you could always 'delegate'...Chris, perhaps?
Hmmm...I thought not!
Take care, call me if you need too.
Nx
My Dearest Bro
ReplyDeleteAbout the dinner invitation for Saturday night, I think we will bring salmon.
Ann
I have had a real think about all this and I know it is the right and proper thing to do....too many cockerels mean angst and fighting, over sexed females and a natural imbalance of behaviours.............I have rehomed as many as I could and have kept as many as I dared.....at least the guy that will be teaching me is a pragmatic farmer who respected the animals under his care.....it will be done properly....
ReplyDeleteSorry John, I know im not the most sensitive of people and my size 10's do go in my mouth alot but I agree with Nigel,I think you should kill them humanley and then show them the respect they deserve by eating them. Then their life would not have been wasted.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Nige & Geoff on this too. I was a vegetarian for 35yrs (now I eat chicken and fish) and even then I understood the cycle of life/death on a farm. I know you are a sensitive soul, but as you said before, it is necessary. If you can't do it, the farmer will do it and you will know the humane way.
ReplyDeleteI have a story about fish my daughter and I caught in Montana and decided to eat.(Normally we'd catch and release.) Neither one of us wanted to kill them and it totally traumatized us, as we had to kill them before departing the river by law. We cried as we conked them out. Awful memory, but they were delicious for supper that night!