Allotments 4 All

me and the missus are divided as i would'nt have a problem but she "no way hosay!"

IF you raised them for that reason than not a problem.... IF its a pet that you now want to put in the pot that could coarse problems.... :-\

I have so much respect for people who could do it but I think I'd have to be a vegetarian .Having watched Hugh FW rearing those lovely pigs even the lure of crackling ,and believe me that's one of my favourite foods, couldn't persuade me.Still glad I've got a good butcher :)

If you eat meat & the animal isn't a pet, then I can't see any grounds for objection.

My only concern would be that the creature was dispatched quickly & humanely; if you aren't confident you'd be able to do that, then get someone experienced and/or licenced to do it for you, or leave well alone.

You'd never guess I was a vegetarian, would you?  :D

sorry, meant to say yes to taking them to slaughter but no to killing myself..I think, if we eat meat, why should someone else have to have the responsibility of rearing it for us, if we had the room, I'd rear all my own

Nope, I'm a veggie, no need to eat meat in my book. Even when our laying chickens get too old to lay, they'll have a nice retirement to say thanks for all the eggs!

You treat them as dinner on the hoof, not as pets, and it's not a problem.

    Think I could if in a '' rearing livestock ''  environment,  just wouldn't look 'em

    in the eye,  head down good food, TLC,  and the best life , -------   now if it was in my back

    garden and I only had one of each , Pig - chicken and a sheep / goat ie.,    very , very

     difficult !      :-\

We had goats and chickens in the back garden and we ate them. Same as people used to keep a pig.

 My parents raised pigs, goats, lambs, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and rabbits when I was younger, they all tasted nice! (even the ones my sisters named) ;)

Snap...  :)

In my opinion its a case of rearing the animal, be it chicken, pig, turkey, or whatever in the best possible way.
At the point you decide to take its life ask yourself one question, Has this animal had the best life it could possibly of had.
At that point if you are happy that you have given that animal everything it needed and it has had a good life then kill it.
BUT, only do it if you can make a clean job of it. Its very easy to half strangle a chicken and therefore leave the poor thing in agony before its death.
If you can't make a quick kill then get someone who can.
Afterall there is no point in rearing an animal for the pot and giving it a good life if its going to have a horrible death.
Just my two peneth worth :-\
Al

Absoloutley without question.  My hens are for producing eggs, not for pets.  OH won't eat our own though....

I used to keep rabbits, geese, ducks, pigs,goats and chickens. They all ended up in the pot. The only thing I did not kill myself was the pigs and goats, which a neighbour (ex-slaughterman) humanely did for me. I would help him but was not capable of giving them an instant death.

I understand that nowadays larger animals have to go to a registered slaughterhouse and the only fresh meat I get now is from my fishing.

Despite, or perhaps because of, early life on a pig farm, I might have trouble with pigs (they're really social and quite bright) but the rest wouldn't be a problem.

i have no problem at all dispatching any live stock i have kept  be it for food or to put it out of its suffering  atb mal

No problem here, have reared pigs, sheep and 2 year old bullocks for the pot
Only killed by experienced slaughtermen. Just wish I could get meat that would taste as good.

We dispatched and killed our first 5 Ducks and a thingy at the weekend. What a fantastic meal we had, and some for the freezer. We have no problem with what we did as we know they had a very good life. More that you can say for a £3 tesco chicken.

Hiya, sueste..welcome to a4a  ;D

 from  1944 - 1947     WW11 and rationing, my mum had a restaurant near Gatwick Airport, and we always had  Ducks, about 200 chickens, sheep, pigs etc. and Mr Morrison would come round when required and slaughter whatever mum wanted done..........
Even in the restaurant food was very limited, but my  mum old bless her did her bit to the war effort.

The boys from Gatwick always had the best meal possible. mind you it was the ilega
to kill your livestock ie pig etc if you did you had to give half to the ministry of food.
but not my mum, she had her own rules.
But as long as the said animal is killed humainly then thats OK. qahtan

Quote from: Biscombe on August 29, 2009, 18:47:34
Nope, I'm a veggie, no need to eat meat in my book. Even when our laying chickens get too old to lay, they'll have a nice retirement to say thanks for all the eggs!

I agree with Biscombe.  I'm a veggie too so I wouldn't be keeping animals for food in the first place.

Happy to say that I am a meat eater and would kill for the plate.
As an ex slaughter man I had to get used to the blood and gore of the shop. This was before they started to kill with the humain bolt.

A pole axe and a good eye for it was all you needed to have, that and a stomach for the job too.

If you eat meat and care for animal welfare then the best thing you can do is rear your own. At least then the animals you eat have had a good life. When you buy some meat from the supermarket then you supporting some inhumane systems of animal rearing.

Just to clarify, 'cos I've had PM's...  ::)

I don't eat meat, and started to phase meat out of my life from age six: by the time I started secondary school I'd eradicated all meat & the vast majority of animal related byproducts (gelatine, lard, rennet, isinglass, E-numbers etc) from my diet. I'd say I was a fully-fledged veggie by 13/14, that's around 20 years thus far...

I personally believe that meat is not a necessary dietary component, however if folk want to eat the stuff, fair enough... I'm not a militant veggie by any means, and if someone is educated as to the practices of the industry and still choses to consume meat I'm not going to argue... Personally, I'd rather 'meat eaters' understood how their food was produced and made informed choices than preach the 'meat is murder' viewpoint. Hence my original comment which began: "If you eat meat..."

Out of interest, has Mrs Simmo changed her mind?

I'm not having a pop but it's very easy to say meat is not a necessary dietary component when you live somewhere like the UK but tell that to a bushman in the kalahari. Did anyone see that programme where they took people off to scotland and took them through catching food (rabbit, duck, deer, etc) and the killed it and cooked it. Very interesting.

I think people need to be aware where their meat comes from and be able to equate sanitised plastic wrapped bits in supermarket back to the animal it came from.

Anyway back to the original point - I've never done it, apart from fish, but would hope I could. It would be hypocritical of me to eat it if I couldn't. I think the biggest problem is people treat animals like litlle people and part of the family (fine to a point with pets) but not with stuff designated for the pot.

Also why are people happy to eat pork, beef, venison, etc but get upset with countries where they eat dog/horse? At least vegetarians are consistent as they eat none of it

mrs simpson is still adamant that she wouldnt kill for the pot. there's one house divided then.

I had two piglets in January 2007 and loved watching their antics.  They were very friendly and loved having their tummies tickled.  My butcher took them to slaughter in October that year and then came and butchered them to my needs in his well equipped van in my garden.  We bagged up the produce and popped it into the freezer.  They had really happy lives and taste wonderful.

Last year I bought two female lambs who this year gave birth to two ram lambs which will be going down the same route next month.  Lamb is very expensive here in France and I can't wait to have a regular meat supply from my own freezer. 

I had never had large animals before, but have thoroughly enjoyed looking after them and know I shall enjoy eating them too.  I thought it might be difficult when it came to sending them off to the abbatoir, but it was fine and I am so glad I reared both the pigs and the lambs.  I named both pigs and both lambs, but in my head I knew they were for eating so it wasn't a problem.