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 have done.
I've killed fish
I've skinned a rabbit
I've plucked a chicken

@Schmonday the way you said it I envisaged a completely different scenario - had a vision of you with a random pet for tea on the kitchen table of a modern barratts house 😂

Starchime22 I agree - apologies for going off on my own tangent! Well I say apologies

Nope, we eat the birds we shoot. We also rear them so not much different to farming, really.

In theory I think I could do it.

Dp couldn't. He grew up in a care and did temporary Foerster in a house that reared pigs and chickens for meat and he hated it, they used to name the pigs too

I've killed fish, poultry,rabbits and the occasional sheep. They were all delicious.

I'm sure if I'd been raised in a different time or different culture, I would be able to do it. But that's not my reality. I wouldn't eat meat if I had to kill the animals myself, that's true.

But as it stands, I eat very little meat anyway, so I don't feel too bad about it.

I think if people were closer to the rearing and killing process it would put an end to shit quality meat wrapped up in plastic in supermarkets, and instead promote high welfare meat.

I absolutely agree with this. I have stopped buying supermarket meat and the only meat I buy is chicken from a direct supplier (to feed the dogs, as I could no where near raise enough to feed my 8 dogs). The meat we consume as a family is bought from a local semi-retired farmer who breeds or buys enough each year for the families who buy from him. So at the moment, he is raising two pigs, a steer and three lambs for me. They are raised in a very natural environment with the best of care, we can visit when we want. When it comes time for slaughter, we usually go and help him load up for them to be taken to the abattoir. When I move house in a few years, I will have enough land to be able to breed and raise enough meat for us and a bit extra to barter with, which is the way of the community that I am moving to.

There is no comparison to meat that has been raised free range and allowed to live a happy and natural life and the bland processed plastic wrapped meat from the supermarket.

When it comes to slaughtering though, I won't do that. Because I don't have the skills to ensure that it is done humanely and no cause the animal additional stress. I'm also not a butcher and don't think I would have the physical capability of breaking down a whole beast myself. I am happy to pay for someone who does have those skills to do those tasks, and I don't think it takes away from my ethics about the type of meat that I eat. I also can't repair my car, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't drive.

I could and would if necessary. I grew up on a small holding where we raised animals for meat. My brother is a butcher and killed them and chopped them up. No squeamishness here.

I grew up with an out-doorsey, hunting, chicken keeping dad. My parents regularly killed stuff and as soon as I made the connection that meat is the actual flesh of other living beings, I was grossed out. I am am happily vegetarian.

So yes, growing up seeing animals killed and turned into dinner really put me off eating their flesh!

The school I went to had a farm attached, in 1st yr (yr 7) you could have a lamb to raise, show etc. And when it got to the appropriate age off it went to be slaughtered. In 3rd yr, a calf.

If I had to kill the animals or fish myself I'd become vegetarian, no doubt about it. Im a hugely hypocritical I know.

I get upset when one of my pet fish die, so I'm pretty sure I couldn't butcher and fillet anything small, let alone a large animal.

MidniteScribbler The picture you have painted sounds idyllic, I'd give my right arm to be back in the community farming world.

However I married Mr City Living 2000, so my rural roots are being curbed

I think it would give us a better connection with our food. I don’t think we would become veggie but we would eat less meat as it would make us respect it more.

It's just sentimentality and anthromorphising.

If they were hungry enough - and more to the point if their children were hungry enough - most people would kill a chicken, or any other animal they could physically manage too. People saying "oooh I couldn't" mostly just mean they would find it distasteful, they're sentimental or squeemish - not that they wouldn't if it were that or let a 4 year old human child starve...

Yanbu.

Depends how hungry i was.

I'm a veggie. I actually think I would be happier eating an animal I had killed myself than one that had been slaughtered in an abbatoir. The former is much more humane!

I'm not sure if I could kill animals or not. But, being honest, I also probably couldn't be arsed with growing a field of crops so I'd end up starving if I had to do it all myself.

If I had to kill I would but I don't have to, so I don't. I still eat meat.

Homekill sounds more like a hobby, as a word I mean.

I have done, but only poultry (chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and turkeys). I've also reared lambs for meat, but couldn't bring myself to "dispatch" them myself, so a neighbour did it for us. Didn't stop me from enjoying the meat. I know I'd have struggled a lot more if I hadn't been able to stay fairly detached, though. If any of them had needed hand rearing, I'd have been stuck with them until they died of old age

YY midnite about the fact that slaughtering an animal (cow, pig or lamb) is a skill.
You really wouldn’t want to leave to people who have no idea of what they are doing!

But tbh what is the difference between killing a cow and killing a rabbit or a faisan? Plenty of people seem to be happy to do that just for the fun of it (and wo eve trying to eat said animal)

I would kill an animal to eat it. Have done, in fact.