Could you kill your own meat?

I have never hunted...I've fished a handful of times with my boys....but I've never cleaned a fish. I have an acquaintance who is an avid country boy hunter and "sportsman" though and I think I'm going to talk to him about learning how......because I think survival skills may be coming in handy in this country real soon. Seriously.

I could if I had to. But I'd prefer not to.

I love chicken and a good steak and I drool over crab however, if I start to think about where that comes from (live breathing things), it makes me feel ill.

Not because the animals are killed. But because of how they are killed. Unless you are eating organic, free range, grain fed, etc meat, you are taking part in the inhumane treatment of animals. I am a firm believer in eating meat (lots of other species do it) but I can't see why we have to torture our meat before eating it.

If you don't know what I mean, google "factory farms" and see what you get.
You will be horrified.

I think people who kill their own meat are doing a good thing. And I don't think I am asking someone else to do something I would morally object to. I object to killing my food only because it's icky. Someone else might not find it so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4

If you are squeamish, don't watch.
This is the best reason I can see for killing your own meat.

Yes. Butchering and hunting for food don't worry me.

Huting for sport bores me to tears, though.

Our agriculture is not going to break down, but we could end up having to feed China for ten or twelve years between the time they realize they have a problem and the point at which they have it repaired or under control. If THAT happens, being able t0 kill whitetail deer and/or Canadian geese could get to be really useful.

I just about agree. Nothing I ever see or hear about the way meat animals are raised in America makes me feel terribly good about eating any of them.

Good topic Robert.

You've really made me think.

You've made me think I need to really make that last step into giving up meat entirely.

The thought watching the eyes of animal as the life drains out of them sickens me. I course, I could choose not to look, but then I'd just be a hypocrite.

I'm wondering where I or others would draw the line if bringing meat to your table was the result of your immediate actions.

My brother in law hunts for almost all his meat, with a cross bow. He has no problem killing for his food.

I might justify my actions by saying I couldn't kill a mammal, but wouldn't mind killing a chicken, since I find them nasty and brainless....but again that feels hypocritical for me.

I'm going to have to give a lot of thought about giving up fish. I love fish and would be happy if could use that as the most convenient source of protein.

But....I grew up on the ocean, and can remember a situation where I went fishing with my brothers. Not sure of my age, but I was well in the age of reason.

I'd never given catching fish much thought until then. One of them pulled a striped bass out of the ocean, and of course it was flopping all over the deck. It hit me we'd taken it out of its home and it couldn't breathe. My brother picked it up by the tail and swung it like a back hand tennis stoke against the inside wall of the boat. That stunned it a little, but it still writhed pretty fiercely. So, he slammed it a few more times, spurting blood and making a really loud WHACK each time. I was thinking what that would do to my head if I was being slammed like that. I didn't say anything, but it really upset me, and made me nauseous.

I really love fish. It doesn't feel right though.

Don't. Humans are not made to be herbivores. Human digestive apparatus simply is not proportionally large enough.

until I retired I raised beef, hogs and lambs which I slaughtered meself; I did however hire a local butcher to help in the processing/cutting/wrapping. my animals were all basically 'free-range' and i grew almost all their feed.
At the same time I worked in child protection services surrounded by 'liberal yuppie types' who would post on my office door cartoons etc deploring my 'killing' of innocent animals and yet every fall (butchering time) these same associates would show up at my farm wanting to buy neatly packaged steaks/lamb chops/bacon/ham and sausage. (at a discount because "we're friends") I also usually hunted (elk).

I gigged my own bullfrogs, cleaned rabbit and squirrel as a kid. Watched grandpa slaughter a pig. He threw the bladder to my brother to play with, not telling him what it was.

In 4-H some of my friends would raise cattle, lambs or pigs and take them to the fair. There, they were bought for butcher. I stuck with horses cause I couldn't understand befriending something I knew was going to be killed.

So, while I've killed and dressed small game in the past, I couldn't do it now.

Giving up the little meat I eat now would make no difference to my physical well being.

My thoughts are in the vein of do I deserve the fleeting pleasure of a particular taste, when it means the life of a living thing?

I'm thinking no.

Don't get me wrong...my husband loves meat, and I'll prepare it for him. But for me? I don't think I want to be the cause of the death of anything any more unless I have no other choice.

Fortunately, I have choices.

Its a tough road , being a meatatarian.

I don't know if I can give up my Bruno Magli's

I've pretty much stopped buying beef because of what I've seen production-farmers do to cows, and what these millions of cows do to the environment. I LOVE beef, and I've given in a few times (and will again), but where I used to eat some sort of cow probably 4-5 times a week, now it's probably 1-2 times every two weeks.

As far as killing for my meat; I'm going to start. I need to learn to shoot a bow, but I'm going to begin hunting for meat sometime in the next year. I've killed hundreds of fish w/o a problem.

I could probably answer most of the questions you might have about bow hunting.

Have you not heard of CWD?

I've heard that it's not transmissible to humans.

Until it is.

Ok...thanks for the advice.

When I was a kid I loved lamb, but didn't want to eat my pet lamb either when it was butchered. It wasn't because I felt so sorry for it (though I did), it's just that it was an unappetizing thought.

I've lived on a couple of farms in my youth, and we killed our own chickens, goats, and cows. To me the problem with killing your own meat is not a moral one, but a "yuck" one. Just like knowing how the sausage is made makes it less appetizing knowing your meat before it looks like tasty steak also does.

If you saw a hot dog being made you might not want to eat it either.