Yesterday we butchered two pigs at home. It was brilliant

[HumphreyCobbler]

We made sausages and salami. We had chops, tenderloin, ham, hocks,roasting joints - absolutely vast amounts of meat. We won't have to buy meat for at least six months.

We cure the bacon later and finish packing the sausages. The salami looks brilliant hanging in the shed.

I am so pleased

We do it all again on Sunday, two more pigs are being slaughtered and we butcher them on Friday.

I feel Hugh FW would be very proud

don't apologise Peggoty - I was grateful for your support

It is just that I posted in such a spirit of pride that we had created this delicious food and really thought that people who like cooking would want to know about it.

To be accused of being deliberately provocative with my thread title is what has upset me, it couldn't have been further from the truth.

I have no doubts that what I did was ethically ok, so those aguments have just passed me by really.

lol at x post

Bloody Mumsnet, eh? There's always someone to shit on your parade isn't there! You should be proud.

Think you should embrace your butchery with a Halloween name Humphrey

HumphreyChopsCobblers?

Teeth, BoojaB. Bloody great canines.

Whatever evolutionary shift started our ancestors off eating meat, it wasn't a recent aberration. Although I agree it probably involved a fair bit of scavenging to supplement the hunting. Yuk.

Humphrey, a bit naive not to expect some people to feel your title was provocative, though; a significant number of people feel that meat eating is simply wrong, regardless of circumstances.

Maybe to people who routinely eat meat that's a surprising opinion to encounter!

Yes, teeth designed for biting plant roots. And long intestine too, raven.

But canines are for tearing meat BoojaB... The chiselly ones at the front are for plant matter, the flat ones for grinding. We've evolved to be omnivores - some of us choose to be vegetarian, and some choose to eat ethical meat. Save your ire for the supermarket chicken shoppers!

Per, human dentition evolved for processing starches, fruits, and vegetables, not tearing and eating flesh. Our canine teeth are not at all comparable to the sharp teeth of carnivores. In fact, other herbivorous animals (like gorillas, horses, hippos, and chimpanzees) possess the same so-called canine teeth, which are often used for defensive purposes rather than for eating. We're more similar to chimps than any other animal. They have huge canines, yet they're 99% vegetarian (and what litle non-vegetarian food they eat usually isn't meat, it's termites).

That's it...pick on the supermarket shoppers because you think that having the money/resources for 'free range, home reared organic' type murder makes you so superior over them.

The canines are for tearing fruit actually PAAD. Do your teeth look like a tiger's??
Anyone who can describe the slaughter of a sentient being as 'brilliant' is either completely brainwashed or a latent psychopath. Too strong?? Oh well, I must be hat militant veggie then eh?

She wasn't describing the slaughter as brilliant

And we have evolved to eat meat - I choose not to, but I have retained some carnivorous habits such as covering over my shit and sleeping in the same bed every night [night]

Oh sorry, did I misunderstand? She was not describing the slaughter as brilliant...just the dismembering of the corpses. I stand corrected.

That's alright then

Yes it's alright if you believe that it's really acceptable to take a life just to entertain your tastebuds. Glad to hear you cover your shit though!

This has been mentioned already - the butchery was "brilliant", which includes the killing.

Yes, the killing and mutilation of animals must be a great way to spend your time. Back to the original word: "Perverted".

Yes, this is a broken record thread, but until people stop being so bloody selfish and thoughtless and keep killing for their own amusement, then the same arguments will have to be trotted out time and time again.

Agree, Missy8c.

So, I did ask earlier, is it possible to eat a vegan diet in the UK on locally sourced food?

And is it perverted for Inuit and Masai to rely on animals for food?

Our intestines are indeed longer than carnivores, but shorter than herbivores.
As we are omnivores.
Like pigs.

wasting, it's possible to live on locally sourced food. Basic, but possible.

Inuit and Masai are in a very different circumstance to the vast majority of meat-eaters, of course. To find the unnecessary killing and dismembering of an animal "Brilliant" is certainly perverse.

Nope, we're not natural omnivores:

• A carnivore's or omnivore's small intestine is three to six times the length of its body. Humans', as well as other herbivores' small intestines are 10 to 12 times the length of their body, and winds itself back and forth in random directions. It's designed for keeping food in it for long enough periods of time so that all the valuable nutrients and minerals can be extracted from it before it enters the large intestine.
• a carnivore's or omnivore's large intestine is relatively short and simple, like a pipe. This passage is also relatively smooth and runs fairly straight so that fatty wastes high in cholesterol can easily slide out before they start to putrefy. Humans', as well as other herbivores' large intestines, or colons, are puckered and pouched, and runs in three directions, designed to hold wastes that originally were foods high in water content. This is so that the fluids can be extracted from these wastes, now that all the useful nutrients and minerals have been extracted and the long journey through the small intestine is over. Animal flesh, which is high in fat and cholesterol that have been putrefying for hours during their long stay in the small intestine tend to get stuck in the pockets that line the large intestine.
• A carnivore's teeth are long, sharp and pointed. These are tools that are useful for the task of piercing into flesh. Omnivores' teeth are similar to that of carnivores. Humans', as well as other herbivore's teeth are not pointed, but flat edged, designed for biting, crushing and grinding.
• A carnivore's jaws move up and down with minimal sideways motion. The jaw motion of an omnivore is similar. These are tools that are useful for the tasks of shearing, ripping and tearing flesh and swallowing it whole. Omnivores swallow their food whole and/or with simple crushing. Humans', as well as other herbivores' jaws cannot shear, but have good side to side and back to front motion.
• A carnivore's stomach secretes powerful digestive enzymes with about 10 times the amount of hydrochloric acid than a human or herbivore. The pH is less than or equal to "1" with food in the stomach, for a carnivore or omnivore. For humans or other herbivores, the pH ranges from 4 to 5 with food in the stomach. Hence, humans must cook animal flesh. E. Coli bacteria, salmonella, campylobacter, trichina worms or other pathogens wouldn't survive in the stomach of a lion.
• Animal flesh requires vast amounts of uric acid to process. Uric acid must be flushed out and dealt with. That is one of the jobs of the liver. In relative terms, a carnivore's liver has the capacity to eliminate ten times as much uric acid as the liver of a human or other plant eater.

Booja, what about our brains? Part of the reason we evolved big brains is because we started eating energy rich, nutrition packed meat.

Which brings me on to another point. As humans we do stuff because we can and because we choose to. We cultivate plants and domesticate animals in a way that no other species do. Eating meat is something we do because it brings us nutritional benefits. Eaten in moderation (as it has to be if you raise your own animals - however full HC's freezer is it won't provide her with meat 3 meals a day until her next pigs are reared) it is nutrituionslly beneficial, it is only excess (as with alcohol & sugar) that leads to illness.

You choose veganism, (more power to your elbow, both my sisters in law are vegan, which is a choice I respect) but your choice is not more legitimate than mine to eat locally sourced, well produced meat, it's just different. We choose because we're human and we can reason. We are no longer dictated to by our biology.

And having been very reasonable and measured can I just say, FFS! Humphrey has specifically said that it was not the slaughtering of the pigs that she thought was brilliant, in fact she found the deaths upsetting. What is brilliant is providing good food, in abundance, for your family & loved ones.

thanks TFATPC, that is just what I was going to say

Yes we have a choice. How wrong that is....to have the choice of killng an innocent creature for our own selfish wants. I guess the bottom line is that some of us see non-human animals as beings in their own right, that think, feel and SUFFER. Then there are others that see them as a food source,a commodity which we have the right to produce and reap at will.
Have you actually read anything that Booja says above? There is so much evidence that we are not natural meat eaters and in fact, even if we were, the 'big brain' which we have allegedly developed due to meat eating is able to equip us with the knowledge to live a cruelty free life. Our intellectual capability should make us responsible for caring for the other species which share or planet, not abusing them. And FFS, the title of this thread is clear. The op might be trying to back down now she realises she has offended but it is obvious she thought it was brilliant to slaughter the pigs so please stop trying to deny it. If she or anyone else here does find the slaughter part uncomfortable or upsetting that is because it's wrong and somehere in the subconscous you know that. Ever seen a lion crying when he takes out a widebeest?

*wildebeest

BoojaB - Glad to see you survived the night from your phantom knocker!

Well I took the title and OP as the brilliant bit being your sense of overall achievement Humphrey. You reared/raised your pigs and then slaughterd them in the most humane way possible and then made good and full use of as much of them as possible.

You should be proud. Most of us that eat meat would not have the guts to slaughter our own meat and buy it at the butchers or supermaket.

I am very impressed. Enjoy your pork.

er, I am NOT backing down

I did not mean to be offensive, and in fact do not believe I was offensive.

If you were offended you should go away and be offended by factory farming methods.

And leave this thread alone and start your own about the ethics of meat eating.

We're not natural farmers or clothes-wearers either, but humans have developed tactics using their intelligence that allow us to survive in places where we would otherwise perish.

Missy, I certainly hope you don't take antibiotics, wear leather, wool, use nit shampoo or dust cobwebs.