I ate a chicken..

[Vamoosh]

I keep hens for eggs, we acquired the current hens and cockerel because a friend was moving house and couldn’t take them. One of the hens was broody last year and hatched 3 chicks that turned out to all be male.
We have recently had them humanely dispatched and I prepared them and ate them. They have always been free range in our garden so have had a decent life and a stress free death.
A few different friends have been appalled that I’ve eaten my ‘pets’ and have reacted like I’ve cooked up my dog! (I will add that all of these friends eat meat!!)
AIBU for eating the cockerels?

When I was young, I lived in a house where there were chickens that grew up to be roosters. Every day of the week we had cock fights in our garden until finally their owner came and collected them. I was vegetarian at the time, so not interested in eating them, but you can only have one rooster at a time.

Depends - did it last your whole family a week?

Yes we don’t have any close neighbours fortunately! In fact all of our neighbours keep chickens and other livestock too. I do love to hear them crowing though!
Each bird only lasted for 2 evening meals and a lunch so I failed as a MNer in that sense

Much better this way. Well reared, well kept, humanely slaughtered and enjoyed. Bet it was delicious. They obvs weren’t pets. YANBU

Another one who thinks if you eat meat it doesn’t matter where it comes from. There is no need to eat meat at all in this day and age. If you can eat a chicken why is that different to a dog?

We kept chickens when I was a small child, its was the sixties,my dad would often kill one and we had it for sunday lunch, I didn't know I was eating one of our own, we had rabbits too, which I never ate. I wonder if that's why I have been a vegetarian for 30 years.

It’s actually baffling that people would rather eat chickens reared in cramped and unsanitary conditions and fed all sorts than a home reared well treated bird and yet your the one that has been accused of lacking empathy op - strange! Cue everyone disagreeing saying they only eat free range organic chicken even though the shelves in the supermarkets tell a different story. Commercial free range isn’t particularly nice or enriching anyway. Exp’s dad used to send us chickens though, it didn’t bother me where they came from but he’d let them get too big for more value and however slow you cooked it was like chewing an old leather shoe. Glad yours tasted better OP.

Yanbu at all. If we kept chickens that’s what we would do. In fact we have eaten friends chickens and gone to visit their piglets then eaten the chops and sausages bought in their farm shop.

I admire you for giving your chickens a good life, killing them humanely and then not allowing them to go to waste.

I've been a vegetarian for 25 years!

Reminds me of my cousin's dad who slaughtered one of their dogs for a barbecue. Even fed some to the dogs.

Dogs? . Did the guests know they were eating dog?

I’m always a bit baffled by people who get up in arms about one form of meat consumption but are perfectly fine with another. Like the absolute horror that in some parts of Asia they eat dogs, with no corresponding horror about themselves eating cows or pigs. People are very weird about their cognitive biases.

Yes, that's true. I'd still like a heads up that I was eating dog, though.

zscaler
I don't know if it applies to all Asian countries but the issue with eating dog is because in China they believe the meat tastes better if the animal is stressed before death so they sometimes skin them alive or actually start cooking them whilst they are alive. There's some very distressing footage of this happening. The dogs are also bred in dreadful conditions for this purpose.

Christ almighty

@FOJN I’ve often wondered if people believe the same about British beef, given how distressed the animals are as they are processed for slaughter? I’m only aware of one dog meat festival which tortures dogs, but every slaughterhouse in the U.K. is a terrifying and stressful prospect for the animals who go through it. And for the people who work there, of course - suicide rates for slaughterhouse workers are higher than the national average.

Honestly, I would have done the same. Where do they think meat comes from?
We had a rabbit family, didnt realise they were a boy and a girl having babies, so we did eat some of them, meat is meat.

The dogs are also bred in dreadful conditions for this purpose

And a lot are family pets stolen from the still with their collars and/or little coats on.

I have been vegetarian/vegan for 40 years. Apart from meat not agreeing with me I am suspicious of where the meat has come from.

zscaler
I completely agree with your concerns about our own animal welfare standards, however, animals stressed prior to slaughter is an unfortunate consequence and not the objective of the process. It would be so much better if all animals bred for food had the life and ending of the OP's chickens.

So when my mom was a kid they kept geese. They were intended for food. But my uncle names them.
Christmas dinner comes along and they are all tucking into their roast goose and my uncle pipes up....”is this Webster?”
Christmas dinner was no more.

Now, that was weird because then everyone felt like they were eating their pet goose! Did you name them?

Do they judge everyone at KFC?

Our (ex battery rescue) hens are pets and I would never bring myself to eat them but DH would. My kids herd them, I regularly threaten then with the slow cooker but could never go through with it.

I wouldn't judge you for it though. In fact, a friend keeps chickens and rabbits for just such purpose.

At least you know that they're not pumped full of hormones or kept in cramped cages

As a vegetarian I find it repulsive beyond belief. However I also respect your right to do this- I don’t think the world is about to go meat free sadly.

I have to wonder what planet your friends live on.
They sound a bit thick.

I don't know if it applies to all Asian countries but the issue with eating dog is because in China they believe the meat tastes better if the animal is stressed before death so they sometimes skin them alive or actually start cooking them whilst they are alive. There's some very distressing footage of this happening. The dogs are also bred in dreadful conditions for this purpose.
I could cry forever having read this