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Chicken keepers

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Original poster

Culled my cockeral last night.

46 replies

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 20/10/2009 12:02

Neighbours had complained as he staretd crowing last week. He was the only chick that survived, typical he was a boy.

I took him round to a friend's and held him while my friend's DH did it. OMG, it was not nice. I felt quite ill, it was a lot worse than I thought it would be. Now the next cockeral we have I'm going to try with my friend's DH there as support. Just not sure I'd be able to do it.

OP posts:
meltedmarsbars · 20/10/2009 23:04

Quickest way is put your foot on his neck and thwack him on the head with the side of a hammer.

Are you going to eat him?

We ate my dd1's two from this spring's hatchings last weekend.

GentleOtter · 20/10/2009 23:15

Oh, it is horrid having to do it, Stripey but their crowing can be a pest.
We have loads to cull but we cannot catch them as they are roosting high up in the rafters then skulking around during the day.

CarGirl · 20/10/2009 23:16

you've just put me off ever owning chickens!

meltedmarsbars · 20/10/2009 23:28

Got to be truthful!!

How d'you think your chicken drumstick died? And our have much better lives while they do live!

Original poster
StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 21/10/2009 08:16

I guess its one think knowing how they die and actually doing it yourself. Especially when his neck wouldn't seem to break, just kept stretching. Friend cut his head off in the end and he did the thing of still moving about even when headless which is very freaky.

He was only 4 months old so a bit small for eating.

OP posts:
CarGirl · 21/10/2009 09:58

it's the thought of

a) having to kill animal myself
b) having to kill an animal that I've looked after and probably grown fond of.

Still quite happy to eat other peoples though so long as I haven't had to do the deed

I remember my Dad telling me that the kept rabbits to eat during and after WWII

meltedmarsbars · 21/10/2009 10:10

We don't name things intended for the pot. That way there's less emotional attachment.

CarGirl · 21/10/2009 10:24

hmm less emotional attachment, that kind of implies that there is still some....

Missy8c · 21/10/2009 11:23

Of course there is emotional attachment. They are sentient beings. They feel pain and fear like the rest of us. Why are human beings so smug that we really believe we have the right to take the lives of 'lesser' beings for our own selfish desires. Perhaps the discomfort you feel about killing living things should be telling you something! One would have to be completely de-humanised to feel nothing at all, and certainly lacking in compassion to be able to kill in the first place. I wouldn't dispute that free range animals have a far better existence than the poor souls who are factory farmed but they are not the only two choices.

Yes, I have jumped on a thread that I don't belong to.
Yes, I am about to get completely slagged off for putting in my opinion (water off a duck's back....a living duck!), and
Yes, you probably have a million and one reasons why I am wrong and I don't understand etc, etc.

Sorry, but if just one person reads my post and thinks twice about whether they really need to eat the corpses of murdered animals then some good has been done.

Original poster
StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 21/10/2009 12:39

I didn't have any emotional attachment to he cockeral. I was just a bit grossed out by te pracicalities of it. I wanted to make sure it was done as humanely as possible as I'm aware that they feel pain/stress.

OP posts:
Chickenshavenolips · 21/10/2009 12:47

Well done Stripey Personally, I think that if you're responsible for bringing something into being, you are responsible for seeing it out if it comes to it. I haven't hatched my own chooks yet for this reason. I think I would be capable, but I don't know of anyone who could show me the quickest, least stressful way. I don't know anyone who breeds chooks that looks forward to culling, but it is a necessity, and much more humane than leaving them out for the fox.

meltedmarsbars · 21/10/2009 14:38

Missy8c, you have as much right to voice your opinions on this thread as any of the rest of us!!

I think that killing and eating your own food is far more human than the factory-farmed versions in supermarkets. We have developed as omnivores, and over thousands of years have developed our big brains etc from the high protein sources of meat.

Kidding ourselves that we shouldn't eat meat is denying our ancestry.

Missy8c · 21/10/2009 14:57

Our ancestry includes rape, pillage and murder (of humans) too but we have grown to realise that this is not acceptable. Meat is known to have carcinogenic properties and recent evidence proves that a vegetarian diet is healthier and that vegetarians live longer and are generally more intelligent than meat eaters. I already said that I detest factory farming and agree that eating and killing your own food may be less offensive. I can't abide the hypocrites who will close their eyes to the suffering of animals as they ignore the truth behind the packaged meat on the supermarket shelves. However, I still cannot get my head around how someone can murder an innocent creature just because it might taste nice with veg and gravy.

CommonNortherner · 21/10/2009 15:19

mmmm... I had a corpse of a murdered animal sarny for lunch, was delish!

CommonNortherner · 21/10/2009 15:20

It had a death shroud of lettuce and onion, very dignified it was too!

ilovesprouts · 21/10/2009 15:23

yuk no wonder my dd is veggie !!

bodycolder · 21/10/2009 15:24

I am not a vegetarian and have never killed anything that I have eaten which is probably the majority of MN carnivores.I am a bit ashamed to admit that tbh as I do think if you are happy to buy shrink wrapped meat in the supermarket without a second thought you should not be shockd by the slaughter.I applaud you the rest of us are hypocrites

Missy8c · 21/10/2009 16:47

What a shame that on a serious subject on a discussion board, we have people who can only manage to make stupid comments showing their ignorance and inability to add anything worthwhile to the conversation. Well at least it gives weight to the argument that vegetarians are more intelligent so thanks for that CommonNortherner!

hmc · 21/10/2009 16:53

I must admit I do think it is wrong for us to eat animals - I appreciate that we are ominivores hence teeth for ripping, teeth for grinding etc..but we are human and capable of making a moral choice rather than following blind biology.

However - I do eat meat, whilst still acknowledging that it is wrong. I also keep chickens and had two cockerels killed out of a batch of chicks that I raised.

I think that makes me a moral reprobate! Most of the time I deal with these moral dilemmas by simply not thinking about it

Missy8c · 21/10/2009 16:57

hmc - I think you are actually a vegetarian waiting to happen

hmc · 21/10/2009 16:58

Possibly Missy...

slimeoncrazydemon · 21/10/2009 17:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Missy8c · 21/10/2009 17:27

Yeah slimeoncrazydemon, get off the fence. It's a bit lonely on my side!
I readily admit to 'preaching' because sometimes people are interested...in how animals are treated, what the alternatives are, why I am veggie etc. etc. so very occasionally someone will think about making a change to their eating habits based on what they learn. If something I say saves a single animal then I'm happy to have stood on my soapbox.

CommonNortherner · 21/10/2009 17:29

Actually I was a vegetarian for years and a vegan for a year and currently eat a mostly vegetarian diet. I just never lost my sense of humour!

pinkmagic1 · 21/10/2009 17:48

I keep chickens and we have dispatched our surplus cockerals too, stripey. It is not a pleasent job and we find the most humane method is to quickly sever the head with a sharp knife.
Everyone has a right to there own opinions, but you only have to look at a human beings teeth to see that we have evolved as natural omnivores and if we are going to eat meat it is only right we know the whole process of where it comes from. People have lost touch with where their food comes from and many children grow up thinking meat comes from Tesco!

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