To think that meat eaters...

[hashbrownsandwich]

Should be comfortable to slaughter animals if they are happy to eat them?

The 'cheap chicken' threads have got me onto this and I'm at home with covid so be gentle!

My own personal background is that I am vegetarian and have been since I was 7. Own decision. I cook meat for my children and my husband because I believe, like i was given, it's a choice that can be made for themselves.

My husband is from farming background and has proactively raised and slaughtered animals. His conscience is entirely clear because he very much has the farmer mindset of raise the animal, give them a good life, dispatch and consume.

It's coming up to 'Turkey time' on the family farm and with the so called shortages forecast this year, I've found myself having more conversations with colleagues about the food chain/supply etc.

We live in an affluent area and we have lots of farm shops, butchers etc. However, I'm shocked that most people I know have said while they couldn't give up meat, they also wouldn't be happy to raise animals for slaughter themselves or to witness their slaughter.

So AIBU to to believe, if you're going to eat meat, it's your moral duty to be ok with animal slaughter?

Just to say, what I've tried in a long winded way above is that i'm not a preachy veggie and I'm not vegan.

Well by that reasoning if you cook meat for your family to eat then you are complicit. Does that mean you would be willing to slaughter animals?

So... a 5yo wants to make a chicken sandwich... they have to be the one to kill the chicken?

You are talking to the wrong person! I was kinda making a facetious point about the ops beliefs and how someone could have a belief that the op was in the wrong for cooking meat.

@hashbrownsandwich

Should be comfortable to slaughter animals if they are happy to eat them?

The 'cheap chicken' threads have got me onto this and I'm at home with covid so be gentle!

My own personal background is that I am vegetarian and have been since I was 7. Own decision. I cook meat for my children and my husband because I believe, like i was given, it's a choice that can be made for themselves.

My husband is from farming background and has proactively raised and slaughtered animals. His conscience is entirely clear because he very much has the farmer mindset of raise the animal, give them a good life, dispatch and consume.

It's coming up to 'Turkey time' on the family farm and with the so called shortages forecast this year, I've found myself having more conversations with colleagues about the food chain/supply etc.

We live in an affluent area and we have lots of farm shops, butchers etc. However, I'm shocked that most people I know have said while they couldn't give up meat, they also wouldn't be happy to raise animals for slaughter themselves or to witness their slaughter.

So AIBU to to believe, if you're going to eat meat, it's your moral duty to be ok with animal slaughter?

Just to say, what I've tried in a long winded way above is that i'm not a preachy veggie and I'm not vegan.

Would your children slaughter?

You are preaching, you are in a long winded way saying if you want meat, breed and slaughter it yourself.

If we all did that what would farmers do for a living?

I knew a farmer who was an absolutely vile piece of shit who gave no thought to his livestock's quality of life. If he took 30 cattle to slaughter, at least 4 or 5 would be sent away because they had eye abscesses, broken legs or god knows what else wrong. On the one hand it was good that abattoirs had health standards but the fact he was just sent home, no investigations or follow ups meant that it was just him losing out financially when the beast died at home or he was forced to treat it enough to get it to a killable state. And when he'd leave his ewes in a cattle building for days without food the RSPCA were as much use as a chocolate teapot

I'd also be interested to know if both your livestock get the same 'label' after slaughter , as that's quite a stark difference but I imagine that they still meet the requirements for a label of some sort.

People will continue to eat meat no matter what. Posts like this won’t stop that and however we’ll intentioned it does come across a bit preachy. I think more focus on animal welfare and campaigning for acceptable standards would be more productive.

I agree with you. We have raised several batches of chicks and we always cull out the roosters ourselves.

On the other hand, in my personal opinion, vegetarians are hypocrites. Animals are still killed along the way so that you can have your egg and dairy products.

Are you prepared to kill a baby bull calf so the milk can be taken from the mother? Are you prepared to cull out the male chicks so only the egg laying hens are kept to produce your eggs?

If not then you should hardly be asking this question of 'meat eaters'.

I'd quite like to give hunting and slaughtering my own animals ago, it looks like it would be a lot of fun. Thing is, it's illegal in this country to hunt and butcher animals, even wild ones like deer.

I think the idea that "meat eaters should be comfortable slaughtering animals themselves" is missing the point though. While I'd love to kill my own meat, others are not, but so what? I'm happy to call the fire brigade if my house is burning down, but not to run into a burning building myself. I'll undergo surgery in hospital if I need to without worrying that I wouldn't be able to return the favour to the surgeon.

Different people have different skills. That's how a society works, everyone does their job and each job feeds into other what other people do.

Anyway, if it were wrong for a meat eater not to slaughter their own meat, it would be equally wrong for a vegan to eat food they haven't grown themselves, or to buy from a shop that sells meat, or buy (vegan) food that has been transported in a lorry by a potential non-vegan.

Vegetarians should volunteer 2 weeks a year in the fields of the UK to increase our harvest and so we don't have to fly in hundreds of Eastern Europeans who are exploited by modern slavery in British agriculture.

Just yesterday I was watching a news report on the subject and how the new visa scheme isn't working and how recruiters are misleading those who are looking to come work here and how poor the conditions are for humans.

Or they could knock off the sanctimous crap about how other people should do x, y and z in a nasty puritanical confrontational manner, rather than just exposing poor practices in our food supply chain.

Do you really think that's fair to ask though? Most people (through no fault of their own) didn't grow up caring for animals that were only being raised for slaughter, therefore we wouldn't have the ability to disassociate the kill with the food if we had to kill them. Obviously we aren't, therefore, capable of killing for food. Your husband is used to that environment, yet still chooses to eat meat, so it hasn't put him off.

If we had grown up in that environment, it would be very much a normal thing to us, and therefore we wouldn't bat an eyelid. It's very unfair to ask that of people who aren't used to it.

Animals eat animals, we always have and probably always will.

yes yabu.

I agree with PPs that most of us, me included, would be vegetarian if we had to kill the animals ourselves! It's not just about how you feel about killing another living being but it's also about convenience. I'd assume you would then need to cut it in pieces and prep it for storage. I have gutted fish and plucked birds and that's enough work for me, I don't think I'd have the will to prep a whole cow or even a pig.

I eat and enjoy meat and yes I would be comfortable doing this.

I get flack in every day life for going hunting - from people that will eat the aforementioned bargain chicken - but will have a go at me for being prepared to shoot and prepare a bird? I don't understand the mindset.

So are we all issued with enough land to keep our animals? Is everyone given the tools to slaughter and cut up their animals? What about storing the meat and disposal of the carcass? Who trains everyone up?
I mean I would be happy to slaughter the animal myself, but I have no idea how to rear and butcher them. Not really practical is it?

Unless there is a government test where everybody has to go to the abattoir to slaughter an animal to prove they aren't hypocrites. They get a licence to buy meat from the supermarket. Those who fail have to stick to a vegetarian or vegan diet.

@Lavender24

Most meat eaters can't even bear to watch slaughterhouse footage let alone slaughter an animal.

You brave vegans, taking one for the team

Of course there would be a lot more vegetarians or vegans if people had to deal with the animals that their food comes from, but there would also be less humans if they had to take care of themselves instead of going to the doctor 🤷‍♀️ at the end of the day, it's a job! Definitely sound like a peachy vegetarian to me!

I’d happily watch an animal be slaughtered, on TV or in real life. I have seen it on TV- the F word I think.

I wouldn’t be happy to raise and kill them myself any more than I’d be happy to build my own house instead of paying a builder to do that.

I've caught / killed my own fish, game, and chicken. Perfectly comfortable skinning and gutting rabbits and pheasants (easier to skin the latter - feathers get everywhere) etc.

I'd like to go deer stalking one day if I can keep the venison.

Never tried slaughtering my own beef or pork as I have neither the expertise nor the right equipment to do it humanely.

@smallybells

I get flack in every day life for going hunting - from people that will eat the aforementioned bargain chicken - but will have a go at me for being prepared to shoot and prepare a bird? I don't understand the mindset.

@smallybells

Do you eat your kill? Or kill for sport?

@HarrietsChariot,
Thing is, it's illegal in this country to hunt and butcher animals, even wild ones like deer
It's entirely legal, actually, provided you have permission from the landowner - which usually means you also have some experience under the eye of someone who knows what they're doing, or your DSC1 for deer stalking - and you're not doing it out of season or otherwise in breech of the law (e.g. using firearms without proper precautions).

You can shoot rabbits, hare (in season only), pigeons (for crop protection), certain species of duck and geese in season, game birds in season, muntjac deer all year round (because they breed all year round) and other deer species at certain times of year. If we didn't shoot deer, we would have no woodland left.

And you can take it home and butcher it yourself and eat it. If you have the appropriate licences, you can sell it on.

I honestly think that people should be more closely connected to their food and understand better where it comes from. You want to leave the killing to people who will make it as quick and painless as possible, but getting to grips with prepping a pheasant makes you respect your food much more.

I de-feathered gutted and prepared a lot of pheasants from about 8 years old (wasn’t allowed to shoot them that young though) - my brother has slaughtered lambs and chickens, as could I but have never really been in the time or place for the opportunity.

I would have absolutely no problem slaughtering my food, why do non-meat eaters think this will put us off? Do you just think that when we’re eating meat that the cow/sheep/duck just went to sleep and turned into Sunday lunch? We’re quite well aware of how good is prepared. I’ve seen plenty of slaughter house propaganda from vegans/protesters and it absolutely does nothing to sway me.

That said, I could easily be a pescatarian, I don’t need to eat meat, I could happily live without it, I would need either or though and couldn’t be vegan my little joys in life are meats and cheese - I just choose not to take the non-meat-eating route because I don’t want to. Sandy the vegan from next door has absolutely no power over my dietary preferences 😂

I’m a lifelong veggie and part time (half arsed) vegan.

I don’t think it is necessary for non-veggies specifically to be able to slaughter animals BUT I do think that all of us have a responsibility to better understand the food industry and it’s impact on the planet, wildlife, health, etc. This is because whilst humane care of animals is important, it is only part of the wider man-made problems created by industrial food production (yes, including vegetarian and vegan foods!). We all have a responsibility to “do better”, not just meat eaters and I think that this type of rationale just evokes irritation from non-vegetarians.

In an ideal world everyone would have their own farm with their own livestock that they slaughter and prepare themselves. However we do actually have jobs, and by doing that you’d be taking jobs from those who are paid to do it for us.

Not only that, some people are squeamish about paper cuts to their own finger, it’s not the slaughtering of the animal they’re going to eat that might be the reason they couldn’t kill their own, it’s simple because they’re squeamish.

I mean, if you’re going to shit in the toilet is it only fair you jump in sewer and start fishing around when a pipe bursts or shall we leave that to the professionals?

I'd have a go but the poor cow I would be going after with my knife and fork wouldn't be having a good day TBH.

This kind of thinking reminds me of an exercise when I was in year 6 on a school trip. We had to kill and cook a chicken. I took on the role of holding the chicken as its head was chopped off. Of course I was worried about hurting the chicken and didn’t hold it properly. In hindsight I think it was cruel for the chicken as it wasn’t the neatest execution.

Blimey, that’s a bit hardcore for year 6. Did your trip have a ‘Lord of the Flies’ theme?

My most memorable trip was going down Brighton sewers