To think if you had to kill the animal yourself you wouldn’t eat meat

[Starchime22]

First off I’m not vegetarian, although I’m starting to lean that way, (as in, I eat fish, and occasionally meat if I’m in a restaurant, but never buy or cook meat myself) so it’s not my intention to criticise or goad omnivores.

But I’ve been thinking about how I’d have no problem killing a fish to eat, (and have) but definitely couldn’t kill a cow or a pig, and probably not a chicken. I’m not sure how many people could, really.

Is it right to eat something you couldn’t bear to kill yourself? Or watch being killed? I’m not saying it isn’t, just interested in what people think.

I teach outdoor education scottish so very practical, so maybe my standards of grammar are slipping without me realising.

kiki I know meat isn’t necessary but it is good for you. An organic steak or chicken breast IS good for the body. I’m not talking about bacon or hot dogs, etc.

We raised our own pigs for meat and butchered them ourselves, with the help of Hugh F W dvd. It is a very guilt free way to eat meat.

It was amazing, I posted about it here and got my arse handed to me for being cruel Those pigs had an excellent life and a much easier death (we had them slaughtered at home). I remember people telling me I was disgusting. Mumsnet is strange sometimes. Hecate started posting definitions in my defence iirc. She was great.

I would but like PP has said, I would only do it if I was taught how to do it humainly and properly so the animal didn't suffer

duckling, why does your DH dictate what goes into your mouth?

I don’t have to kill animals because it’s already done for me. But I probably would if I had to.

You’d need a lot of room and it’d be messy with blood squirting like a gusher from the dying animals neck, but needs must.

I do kill animals and eat them so, yabu.

Humphrey, is Mumsnet strange when it doesn't agree with you?
Humane slaughter.
Love an oxymoron.

Andumpasty not sure about the steak, there’s a lot of evidence that red meat causes cancer. But you can eat perfectly healthy without eating those things.

Healthily*

zippey it’s not a need though. It’s purely violence for enjoyment.

Humphrey the people telling you you were disgusting are perhaps disgusted by violence to animals. Most of them were probably indirectly participating in violence to animals, but were not wanting to face the truth. Most people do come from a viewpoint that violence to sentient beings for pure enjoyment is wrong.

Most people on this thread seem to think unnecessary violence to animals is fine but imo that’s not an accurate representation of the general population, most of whom probably won’t look at this thread as it makes them think about animals dying which they don’t like.

if you see and hear lambs trying to escape a pen to get back to their mothers just before they are taken away to be killed you wouldnt eat meat heartbreaking
just think about what an animal has to go through they feel pain

Kiki
it is of course cruel to kill something that doesn’t want to die. Unless it is also not cruel to kill a healthy, young human for enjoyment, as long as the killing is quick (shot to head for example)

This statement is very muddled but I think you might be trying to say that if I think killing an animal isn’t cruel then I must also think it’s not cruel to kill a person .....or something. If you are going to try and persuade people that killing animals is cruel then I think you need to be more coherent. Anyhow, I don’t think killing an animal humanely is cruel. I’ve done it loads of times and would be happy to do it again. I don’t actually eat much meat but that’s for health reasons rather than ethical reasons.

Lambs who are young enough to still be following their mothers are unlikely to be old enough for slaughter, surely? They might well be separated after the Summer and prior to tupping (for the ewes), but slaughter at that size seems unlikely.

I grew up in the country, most of my school mates lived on farms and you learned from a young age precisely where your meat came from and how it was dispatched. You also learned how to fish, shoot and prepare said food (I.e. gut and skin). It’s not for everyone but I don’t think it would do the wider public any harm if they investigated where there food came from.

I know quite a few people in Vietnam who raise chickens, pigs, etc. and I know where the food Ends up. I went to one lady's house and she had baby chickens running around, she told me next time I visited she would make chicken soup. If you have limited food, you eat what food do you have. Even if you have to kill it. I don't think I worded that correctly, but I think you know what I mean.

I can... and have... killed game animals. I'm not so sure I would want to kill domestic breeds like lambs. I don't know if that makes me hypocritical. However were it an apocalypse situation I could kill anything... anything at all... to feed my family.

Melt it’s not muddled. It’s either cruel to kill a sentient beings or it’s not, my view is it’s cruel. Humans and non-human animals are both sentient beings, they both have personalities, likes, dislikes, the capacity to feel pain, fear, sadness, anger, excitement, contentment.

Ex dp grew up on a farm and he's seen all sorts of slaughter. When their dogs were ill they used to take them up the field and shoot them. It sounded terrible!
But way back from his great gran his family were of agricultural background and it was normal for them to kill the animals and eat them. They mainly grew potatoes etc but kept animals for themselves.
I couldn't do it.

His mom apparently used to sit on a bench outside their home and she was so attached to a duck they had, she used to have the duck on her lap and stroke it. They killed it and ate it. My heart would sink!

I'm not a meat lover for the taste and I'd be vegan if I didn't like dairy. But I'm trying to cut down on that for my health as well as the animals.
I've stopped using products tested on animals.
It's dreadful how some incredible beautiful beings are used :(

Schlim lambs are killed between 6 weeks and 5 months old. They wean around 4 months naturally but farmers speed up the process by separating them from their mothers when they are around 50-60 days old. This is distressing for lamb and ewe.

Forevertired that’s great you’re vegetarian, if you want tips on giving up dairy let me know. What plant milks have you tried? Is it more about cheese?

@kiki, I'm one of the rare people in the world who hate cheese fortunately for me haha! It's more yogurts with me but for a lot of milk I use oat milk or cream for tea etc or as a general Ingredient. I'm trying to raise my dc that way too because it's no good for you really. But mainly yogurts. I try to avoid soya if I can too but I'm yet to find a decent yogurt then I'd be fully converted.

We would buy meat from shops but occasionally also slaughter animals to eat.

I wouldn't eat the animals I witnessed or knew were being killed in our home but ate the meat bought from the shops.

For me it was more of a cleanliness issue. The chickens in the garden would crap everywhere and stand in their own shit. So I saw how dirty they were. Whereas I hadn't seen how unclean the shop bought chicken were. I could block that out of my mind. I knew they probably did the same but because I hadn't seen it with my eyes, it didn't happen.

Though I stopped eating chicken feet after I saw a chicken stand in it own poo.

I prefer eating vegetables. But because I was brought up on meat I have to eat it every now and again otherwise I get a bit snappy. I really crave it.

I think I had chicken two or three weeks ago. But then I've avoided it since because the person who prepared it is very relaxed with they way they work with chicken. Chicken juice everywhere and cross contamination so that's put me off again.

It's clearly a cleanliness issue for me.