Do You, Personally, Kill Your Own Meat? page 2

[brighthorse]

I, too, have respect and gratitude for the animals I kill and eat. I don't hunt anything that I don't eat. I catch and release alot of fish too. I mostly catch what I need for a meal that night. Fresh Fish is awesome.
Also, it is called hunting and not killing because, sometimes, that is all you do. It takes skill to bag game plus a little luck!

[cori93437]

I've killed for meat and I've never had the attitudes or actions you mention in your 2nd paragraph. Toward the animals I've killed I've felt respect, gratitude and some sadness at that moment. Taking food and wanton killing are not the same thing. You know. serial killers, normally start with small animals.

Tercio

This.

I was raised on a farm. On that farm and neighboring farms (and in hunting/fishing) I raised and butchered, or assisted in raising and butchering, or hunting and butchering, just about anything you can think of 'normal' in North America at one point or another. It wasn't ever malicious. We raise all the animals in clean well kept environments, and with kindness. When it was their time... it was just their time. They had lived a good life to that point, be it months or years... and they were dispatched with as little trauma as possible. As for hunting, we were taught to shoot accurately at targets before being allowed to practice on real game and were expected to kill efficiently... not lame something and have it suffer.
It was also always the expectation that one did NOT take only the best cuts and leave meat to rot. The entire animal was to be used respectfully.

Living so far south now I no longer hunt game, but (when my head isn't a bloody mess) husband and I fish the coastal flats and keep some of the catch. Since husband doesn't eat fish at all this amounts to mostly catch and release sport fishing and taking substantially less than the allowable 'limit'.

I've never felt any guilt about dispatching, butchering, or eating any of the animals that I've participated in the care and killing of.

I've known people like you describe in your second paragraph... they are not people I like or appreciate. Malicious killing of animals is weak. A disgusting character flaw IMO.

[orielwen]

When I was growing up my family kept geese, and from a young age I was involved in the plucking and gutting. In fact, I ended up doing all of the latter: my small hands and arms made it easier for me. As I got older I started to help with the killing too. I remember being really upset the first time, though I didn't know why – still don't really; I fully accepted the death of the bird and the tasty meat associated with it. But after the first time I was ok with it.

I haven't killed any food in years, but I'd love to go hunting with hawks sometime.

[solstice]

my husband hunts deer off of our land. He keeps pushing me to get my hunting license. I did, however, skin one of his deer single-handedly this year---and I have to say it was pretty awesome. We butcher ourselves too. We also killed a few of our chickens this past year, but I agree that if they are more than 6 months old they are probably pretty tough.

[Crabbcakes]

I thanked each one for being such a good turkey and for their sacrifice to feed my family as they each had their heads chopped off. A friend brought over her kids and they played with my son (4yo) outside the pen while all this was going on. My hubby, our hunter friend and most of my other friends were very surprised I went through with it. I figured that they had a great life and happy food tastes better. I did feel bad about it for a few weeks. I dreamt about the look of betrayal on their turkey faces as we killed them, but this is the circle of life. I feel that it is important to know this process. If you eat meat, someone is doing it and atleast I know mine were well cared for and even loved.

This is a beautiful thought - formally thanking the animal. I saw something like that in a movie ("The Gods Must Be Crazy", a story centered around a !Kung bushman) and remember thinking the same thing. I could easily see myself doing that.

And it might help, too, recognizing that the animals were well-cared for in the case of domesticated ones.

My daughters were all born in urban NJ, and learning where meat comes from is one of the positives of living out here. I mean, I explained it to them before the move, but that is not quite the same thing as seeing dead deer strapped to truck bumpers 6 hours after the beginning of hunting season...

(note - boldface added by me)

[Crabbcakes]

I've killed for meat and I've never had the attitudes or actions you mention in your 2nd paragraph. Toward the animals I've killed I've felt respect, gratitude and some sadness at that moment. Taking food and wanton killing are not the same thing. You know. serial killers, normally start with small animals.

Tercio

You know, one of the "hooks", if you will, of ethical vegetarianism is since many have a "built-in" reticence to killing for food, it is therefore unnatural for mankind to kill other creatures, hence a veg diet is more natural diet for humans. It took some time out here for me to see that not all hunters are evil, unnatural beings. A good number were very kind when they heard that I was from out-of-town and had no experience with guns or hunting. They patiently explained it pretty much as you do above - they are grateful, careful, and use what they shoot.

It made me think that perhaps there was a way to hunt and not chip away pieces of soul, for lack of a closer way of explaining it. Thanks.

[jammies]

Recently, I wanted to get rid of our rooster (meanest critter I've ever met, attacked me many times so I never entered the pen unarmed). I let one of our malamutes kill it and then cleaned it and slow baked it for dinner. It was so tough, it was like trying to eat a rubber chicken. I stewed it over night and the only ones wanting it the next day were the dogs

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Just as an aside here, you should let freshly killed chicken tenderize in the fridge for at least 24-48 hours or they will be tough no matter what you do. In some Chinese families, tender chicken in considered yucky because it is a sign the chicken was not killed the same day it was cooked and there was not "fresh".

[Crabbcakes]

As for hunting, we were taught to shoot accurately at targets before being allowed to practice on real game and were expected to kill efficiently... not lame something and have it suffer.

It would be a while before I actually tried to hunt - like you, I would expect it of myself that I know how to shoot accurately in order to kill cleanly. The whole gun education, licensing, gun purchase, safe firearm storage, go along with a hunter as an observer, and more, is yet to be learned by me, and I recognize it, too! The last thing I want is to go off half-cocked with a hastily purchased weapon - and set that kind of example for my daughters!

[annedawso]

If I had to kill the animal myself I would have to go vegetarian. I can't even bring myself to kill spiders and my family all laugh as I try to get flies out of the window before they swat them with the paper.
I am a wimp. I can't think too much about how the animal was killed or I get upset.
That said, I am firmly of the belief we should eat meat - as long as I don't have to kill it.
My primal role is cook to the hunter.
Actually there is no hunter in our house. We go to the local butchers every week.

[Crabbcakes]

I've killed or assisted in killing and butchering since I was 4. I doubt that you can. That said, you can often get hunters to give you deer carcasses that they don't need or want. You might start there, and learn how to skin and dismember something already dead.

The more I think about this, the more I think you are right - start with learning to skin and butcher a deer already killed. I recently just realized (thanks to the book rack at our local Tractor Supply) that when you hunt, field dressing is part of the job...