Why did the school have to show chickens being slaughtered!

[magimix]

Everything was fine in my house until in my DD RE lesson they showed chickens being slaughtered, ever since she has decided not to eat chicken. Blessed nuisance as now I have to cook 2 dinners instead of 1 when we fancy chicken. She'll eat pork, beef or lamb though how mental is that.

Why did they do that?

Some kids can be funny like that but I don't blame the school. Children should know where their food comes from and realise meat dosn't come from little plastic trays in Tesco/Sainsburys/asda or wherever.

Well yes but showing kids a film with chickens being hung upside down on a moving conveyor and ten their necks being slashed with a spinning razor and bleeding to death is a bit strong.

Hopefully they didnt show that part?

I agree with pinkmagic. I live in a very rural area where many people hunt. Yesterday we went to a neighbour's house. A friend of his way in the garden practising with his crossbow. Yes, we stood behind him. DD aged 3 asked what it was for. He said it was to kill a deer and then eat it for dinner. I was a bit shocked. Then DD said, "Can I eat some?" She wasn't at all worried but that is country life - you hunt what you need and eat it all - which is very different from factory-farming.

How old is yr DD magimix? My DD became a vege. at 9 when she realised she was eating dead animals. She eats some free range organic poultry now though.

I agree with Pinkmagic & Nomedoit all children of a certain age should know exactly where their food comes from. These chicken nuggets for instance dont even come from british chicken so god only knows the revolting and unhumane way they have been reared and killed.

It may be shocking at first but sure that your daughter will get over it. Dont eat chicken for a while, chicken is a luxury meat that we only eat once a week or less because its so expensive (buy mine on-line).

I have no problems at all with my children knowing how important an animals welfare and how to respect the meat we eat. My son has seen loads of cattle being shot. He's fine as we discussed it.

I would not have minded if I had of been forewarned that this was being shown in a Religious Education lesson, DD was 14 at the time. Never mind damage has been done, at least she still eats other meat, which is odd in a way as they are all slaughtered in the same way.
I was shocked a while back to learn that Pret A Mange source their chicken from Brazil, always assumed their meat was fresh & British, never touched a chicken sandwich since!

She's 14? You can;t really hide these things from her forever. And she is old enough to make her own decisions regarding her diet.

She's also old enough to cook her own dinner if she doesn't eat what you are eating.

What did she think happened to animals beforethey can actually be eaten?

Actually Magimix there are huge variations on how different animals are dealt with and slaughtered. Some reasonable, some imo not.

At 14? I took my 3yo up on the tailgate of a butchers van today to see the pigs hanging. It is vital that children know how food is produced and if that involves the (for many) horrible truth then that's what needs to be seen IMHO.

Frogetyfrog - presumably that was the point of the lesson in RE, halal or kosher slaughter or ethics in mainstream slaughter?

In any case, many teenage veggies only last a few weeks and if she's still eating all other meat then I imagine she may decide to eat chicken again. Unless they show lambs and calves in RE

I could see your point at 4 but not 14.

Yes Tippy - presume so. Think its good that everybody gets to see the different types of slaughter so they can make their own mind up as to what is acceptable. Necessary really. I spent a lot of time in many slaughter houses, some mainstream, some halal etc. I now only eat 'free range' meat killed on site such as pheasant, wild duck etc. I wish they would bring back the small slaughter houses.

Each to their own.

I feel the same frog ( though have not obv. spent the time you have in slaughterhouses! Are you a vet or just very interested?) The reason we decided to do the self-suficiency thing in Ireland and not the UK was the small slaughterhouse issue. Our animals went 5km in our own trailer and our butcher let us stay if we wanted to. I've been veggie too long to change back but I'd only eat under your conditions too.

Not bright enough to be a vet tippy!

However, had been veggie for a while and decided to do some research into how I truly felt about it all so spent time on shoots, hunting, worked in slaughter houses as a meat inspector (cow, pig, duck, chicken, sheep, etc) and then made my decisions on how I would eat meat in the future. It took me a few years to work my way round but I feel confident in my decisions now.

I would love to rear my own and slaughter my own, but sadly not enough money or land!! Fortunately I can access enough meat that I am happy with - mostly off good shoots (not the mass slaughter type).

Wow, that's commitment to a theory

Sorry for hijack OP but was fascinated by frog's hanging out in slaughterhouses story

Yes I think you are all right about the age thing, she is old enough to makeup her own mind, I guess on refelction I was just miffed that one minute she ate chicken the next she did'nt, if she saw how other animals were slaughtered perhaps she would not eat them either. I actually had no idea schools showed vivid slaughtering videos to pupils never happened when I was at school.