How to not get attached?

[hbmimsy]

Goat meat is delicious, but I tend to get attached to my animals. Babies are too freaking cute. I also don't think I could kill anything. I know I need to get over it. What are your tips for staying detached?

 

[ksalvagno]

I get attached. It is just the way it is. But, we don't do our own processing. We send all of our animals including chickens to a processor. We don't really have the time and just don't know where we could do it without attracting coyotes or something. So we figure we will help the economy (or at least the local butcher) and pay to have it done. So we drop off a live animal and then pick up packed meats. The first one is the hardest. Then it gets easier with each time you take them in. It will never feel good and you will always feel kind of bad about it but the feelings from the first time go away.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Give them the best life possible before they are to be processed. Makes it easier to let go of them.

 

[bonbean01]

Good luck with that...have the same problem with meat sheep...those lambs are adorable! Firstly, those that are going to be in your freezer, don't name them!!! That makes it worse. Also we do not kill and process ourselves...that would be impossible. First few years we tried to stay aloof and not get attached...that didn't work. Now we enjoy them...going to be hard anyway...might as well enjoy them and I think it makes their life nicer too.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

We process our own but I just bite my lip and get it done. I feel bad for a day or so but it has to be done.

 

[BrownSheep]

I don't think I could ever actually butcher my own animal. I've seen other animals be butchered but never my own. Personally I get a little melancholy the day of but I remember they had a good life and that they serve a good purpose in nourishing my family and me. Also, by the time comes for the butcher trip some of those once so cute lambs have turned into giant pains in the rear.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

its a mindset that you have to have. either you have it, you develope it, or you dont. i think very few people can actually develop it.

personally i dont want an animal if its not going to be producing food or pelts or doing something useful. i have the farmer mindset that i care for the animals so that they can feed me and supply me with furs and things.
i know that my animals are well cared for and have good lives. and when its time for me to dispatch and butcher an animal i dont fret over them. thats not to say that i dont feel bad a little that they have to die. its no small matter to end an animals life.

 

[Queen Mum]

its a mindset that you have to have. either you have it, you develope it, or you dont. i think very few people can actually develop it.

personally i dont want an animal if its not going to be producing food or pelts or doing something useful. i have the farmer mindset that i care for the animals so that they can feed me and supply me with furs and things.
i know that my animals are well cared for and have good lives. and when its time for me to dispatch and butcher an animal i dont fret over them. thats not to say that i dont feel bad a little that they have to die. its no small matter to end an animals life.

A good life for the animal is Key. And humane treatment at the moment of the end is very important. BUT I would prefer to have someone else process them. I just don't have the heart to take a life on my own.

 

[secuono]

Well, once they get older, they tend to become ugly and sometimes mean.
Rabbits sure get crazy and draw first blood, makes it so much easier when they do that. Same with chickens or ducks.
But if you raised it with as much freedom, happiness and gentleness as you can then kill them quickly and humanly also eases the mind.
Be confident when you put them down and do it right the first time or the next times it will be even more stressful and scary. Also...don't close your eyes, hesitate or flinch.

 

[VeganFarmer]

This is exactly why I don't eat meat. I raise all my animals simply to rescue them from abusive conditions, and for the joy of it. I admire people for their ability to raise their own meat, and not support factory farms and the like, but when I think if I was confronted with a happy pig, and a lettuce plant, I'd never kill the pig when I had the option, like most of us do nowadays.
"You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car."
~Harvey Diamond

I know that wasn't really an answer, I was just butting into a conversation like normal.