Rex for meat and fur

[Bossroo]

It appears to me that the crux of the matter here is the degree to which one allows his/her analytical thought to be overridden by his/her emotions. Everybody has some level of emotional attachment to pets and livestock. Losing pets is difficult because we've allowed ourselves to develop emotional attachment. Allowing ourselves to build up that same level of emotional attachment to livestock is not appropriate, but an easy trap to fall into. It is then that we find ourselves unable to dispatch them for butchering. Look at the explanations given about becoming able to butcher once the livestock is no longer "cute" and cuddly. The only thing that has changed is our level of emotional attachment. If we look at it from a purely, analytically, rational point of view, we realize that it is more humane to the animal for it to be instantly rendered unconscious/brain dead by a blow to the head or cervical dislocation or gunshot than for the animal to die slowly from disease, injury, or old age. Even when we're dealing with a pet with which we have emotional attachment, don't we logical people prefer to have the animal humanely put down rather than allow it to suffer a prolonged terminal illness?

Those people who scream about animal rights and criticize raising livestock for food have surrendered all rational thought to the complete control by their emotions. They are incapable of holding a rational discussion because they cannot control their feelings. We all have feelings. Control of those feelings is what differentiates rational thought on one end of the spectrum from lunacy on the other. Fortunately, few people ever lose control to the point of lunacy. But there are a lot of points of various degrees of control, or loss of control along that spectrum.

 

[farmerjan]

I have to agree and disagree. For me, yes, they are cute and all that. Just like I love to watch little pigs and they have such personalities. And by the time they are 40 + lbs., they are getting to be like troublesome teenagers, love 'em but don't have to like them. For me, it is the physical hands on killing that I am not comfortable with. Maybe because I don't feel I am capable of the actual hitting the head or wringing the chickens neck to KILL IT mercifully and QUICKLY. It's not the killing per se, it's being sure that I can do it in a manner that will be quick and done. I can and have shot an animal to put it out of it's misery, I have no compunction of doing away with an animal. I didn't realize that shooting was acceptable, or even practical. Now I will rethink the raising of rex rabbits in the future.
The attachment thing I fully recognize, and the rational thought process of not letting one suffer. I raised a calf from a baby, had her nearly 17 years and she was a pushy, bossy b***h but she raised good calves. When she got weak and down due to old age, I was the one that went up and cried, cussed her out, and thanked her for the years and calves and shot her so she didn't suffer. I have put down a few horses, and one of my dogs that became dangerous and I couldn't trust with my animals and was afraid that he might turn on my son for no reason. I have shot many animals that we have butchered. Maybe it's just that I want to be sure that it dies quickly and I do not feel that I would do it justice with a blow to the head.
I will skin out a dead calf and use the skin to help graft a replacement calf on a cow. I used to do all the skinning of my brothers muskrats when we were kids and he had a trapline , and he dislocated his shoulder in wrestling and couldn't handle the skinning. I have no problem shooting a raccoon in the trap so that he doesn't get into the chickens. I shoot groundhogs regularly as they race back to safety when I catch them unawares in the garden.

 

[Hopalong Causually]

Good discussion, Farmerjan. It appears that you just have doubts about being able to do the job with 100% efficiency. I can understand that. I've been hunting for more than 50 years and I don't think there's anything that makes me more angry with myself than when I fail to cleanly, and QUICKLY kill an animal. Things can happen that are beyond our control but it still makes me feel like I personally failed. I guess what is important is that, after everything is done and all the words are spoken, we still have to live with ourselves and be content that our efforts were well-intentioned and honest. I don't want to make a spiritual issue out of it, but there IS that aspect to it that each of us must settle with ourselves.

 

[Bossroo]

Good discussion, Farmerjan. It appears that you just have doubts about being able to do the job with 100% efficiency. I can understand that. I've been hunting for more than 50 years and I don't think there's anything that makes me more angry with myself than when I fail to cleanly, and QUICKLY kill an animal. Things can happen that are beyond our control but it still makes me feel like I personally failed. I guess what is important is that, after everything is done and all the words are spoken, we still have to live with ourselves and be content that our efforts were well-intentioned and honest. I don't want to make a spiritual issue out of it, but there IS that aspect to it that each of us must settle with ourselves.

Not all dispatching jobs end up with 100% efficiency.
One of my neighbors raised hogs. He would shoot one with a .22 long rifle that he wanted to butcher at that time. He shot a huge boar 4 times in the head and it still didn't go down , then his gun jammed. He called me and I brought my .308 . I shot it over the hog's pen fence and about 3 feet away at his brain , he just shook it off. I immediately shot it again and he dropped like a rock . We cut the skull in half to see why the bullets didn't kill the hog immediately . We found that all of the bullets hit the brain case, but only my last one penetrated the brain case bone. I would NOT recommend anyone to shoot a rabbit or chicken to dispatch it as there are too many instances where the bullet/ pellet goes through the scull , hits another object, bounces off and injures or kills someone. A .22 bullet can travel a mile, so the danger of hitting someone or something is really there.

 

[Pastor Dave]

There is more danger in the shooting method than clobber method, but we never had an issue when I was a kid and haven't now either. Mine are placed on the ground, I position the muzzle so the bullet goes down through the skull and out into the ground. There would be the rare chance the bullet could hit a stone under the ground's surface and ricochet, but so far it hasn't happened.
It is a safety precaution to definitely consider though.

 

[sonorabitandspur]

Food for thought?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

This is the reason many people used sow belly, lard, butter and cheese. Our modern dietary advisors say there is no reason people should add fat to their diet. But in the past it was often a necessity. When I was a young man working in the meat industry, I was given a book to read about cuts of meat, in it was a whole chapter on the benefits of eating meat with the fat! It was put out by the USDA! If one can imagine.