lamb to the slaughter
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My parents keep a small flock of hebridean sheep, 2 are named. Donald the ram, and Blossom the bottle fed ewe.
When their first ones were sent to slaughter, we got some chops sent our way.
We told our daughter (3 at the time) that the chops were from grannys sheep, she asked 'Has Granny deaded Donald?' when we said no, the asked 'Has Granny deaded Blossom?'
Totally accepting of where meat comes from, in fact this evening, just before she went to sleep she was asking precisely how my parents despatched the animals.
Mind you, she is a bit obsessed about death anyway, sometimes I think we're rearing a 5 year old goth.
When their first ones were sent to slaughter, we got some chops sent our way.
We told our daughter (3 at the time) that the chops were from grannys sheep, she asked 'Has Granny deaded Donald?' when we said no, the asked 'Has Granny deaded Blossom?'
Totally accepting of where meat comes from, in fact this evening, just before she went to sleep she was asking precisely how my parents despatched the animals.
Mind you, she is a bit obsessed about death anyway, sometimes I think we're rearing a 5 year old goth.
I remember my brother screaming down the cinema when he thought E.T had died.
Are you saying I've got bad parents because he did this?
the idea of naming something you will eat is a tricky one. Many of the people I know who keep animals generally don't name them (or if they do call them something like Sunday Roast or Bacon Sarnie, that sort of thing).
One excellent tip I was given (by someone who's reared animals on a self sufficient scale for over 20 years) was to freezem them as soon as poss, then eat them in a few weeks time. That way, the assocation between animals and food is more distant.
With luck, I should find out from my own experience what it's like by the end of the year.
One excellent tip I was given (by someone who's reared animals on a self sufficient scale for over 20 years) was to freezem them as soon as poss, then eat them in a few weeks time. That way, the assocation between animals and food is more distant.
With luck, I should find out from my own experience what it's like by the end of the year.
I remember my brother screaming down the cinema when he thought E.T had died.
Are you saying I've got bad parents because he did this?
You ate ET?
I thought he had gone home!
You ate ET?
I thought he had gone home!
The eyes are the best bit. They're really big because he's just seen the phone bill.
The kids may have been influenced by their parents, but I doubt that any one person could control the votes of all the kids, the school kids and those kids who were on the council were fully aware of the facts. More so than we are, or for that matter their own parents, they, the kids, knew from the start of the project that the neutered male lamb (Marcus) was the least valuable in terms of starting a school farm, the two ewes could be put to lamb and thereby add to the schools farm stock (they already had chickens, rabbits guinea pigs) their aim was to raise the lambs but sell Marcus, to raise money to buy pigs, (which are short term money making animals) I doubt that that Marcus was the only with a name. The kids learnt and understood the facts of small holders life, it's a shame the outsiders and the animal rights protesters were not in school when that lesson was being taught. One minor point, the three lambs that the school raised, were orphans, their mothers were either dead, or had rejected them, they'd not have been hand raised on a commercial farm they'd have been killed or just left to die. Marcus had a long and better life than most of his fellow.
Each to their own. So long as you keep their intended purpose in mind. Don't name your food is a good maxim, but distancing yourself from the fact that your food is a sentient creature leads to battery farms leads to a greater cruelty.
I wonder how many of those of so sensitive kiddy winkles parents buy battery chickens?
Or is it that cruelty is okay so long as you hide the fact from the kids that you are financing it?
Personal accountability for the choices we make is a good thing. Meat equals death is a truth. Kids have coped with it for generations. If some become vegetarians or others demand the animals have a good life prior to slaughter - good on em - its called growing up and developing personal values
Red
I didn't express myself very well, I meant to say there is a distance between the animal you reared and the food.
Not quite sure where you got battery farms from, the people I know abhor them (that's why they raise their own animals). They none of them raise their stock in battery farms, I know cos I've been to several of their smallholdings.
I think it was me that didn't Mike
I hear your point on "don't name your food". I too know some smallholders who do that - and many who name them, then eat them quite happily. Naming is a means of differentiation no different from numbering - and you do need to be able to pick out that Gertrude (or No.27) needs vets attention, is off lay, is broody etc. Indeed for legal reasons most "stock" has to be uniquely identified via tag etc. So the only difference between a name and a number is the persons own emotional response to it - both just tell one from the other. I have no problem with either approach but I do have a problem with the notion of denial. In truth it should be no harder to eat "Gertrude" than "27" - either way the animal deserves compassion and a decent life free of unnecessary suffering until the point of its death comes. And its death and ultimate consumption IS the point of its life. Thats why it was brought into being. If its hard to name..why is it? Is it harder to rear Gertrude..or kill Gertrude rather than "27"? The animal doesn't care what its called. Once you get past accepting that that animal was bred and raised for the specific purpose of being killed and eaten and that without the fact of its being killed and eaten, then it would never have had any life at all then I don't personally find its name matters. Would Gertrude prefer a nice life, with fresh straw, good care, plenty of food, room to roam and things to maintain interest? Or no life because someone doesn't eat meat? I suspect in reality Gertrude doesn't know
But if I am going to eat Gertrude, it pleases me not to have her suffer.My point about battery farms is that I suspect that the very parents (in the original link) having a whitter about one animal being named, raised and consumed have probably never even considered these facts. They prefer to look at "pretty lambs" without considering their purpose. They probably never consider the inside of those long sheds with sticky out bits in the country. It is this very lack of consideration of the facts of the lives and deaths of the creatures that they consume which leads to an outcry about a single lamb simply because their children met it and named it. Why are they not as bothered about all the creatures their children haven't met and haven't named? Because they choose to deny the reality of the reason farm animals exist - to themselves and their kids. Then they get all upset when they confront that reality because they choose to hide away from it. Education is about learning truth - not perpetuating delusions. Good on the school and if the name brought home to the kids that a single, individual, sentient creature was killed and eaten, its a good thing.
Off for a nice slice of Gertrude now
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Or is it that cruelty is okay so long as you hide the fact from the kids that you are financing it?
Actually most of the western world is fine with this concept, including you. our clothes and household items were made by people in conditions of near slavery, and sometimes infact by slaves themselves, many of them children. If you want to expose `poor ickle sensitive kiddies` to the world as you put it, we might as well show them everything. This may not be a bad thing, but i doubt most people on the forum like knowing. we are all guilty of shielding ourselves from reality, and a MUCH harsher reality than the meat trade at that.
Actually most of the western world is fine with this concept, including you. our clothes and household items were made by people in conditions of near slavery, and sometimes infact by slaves themselves, many of them children. If you want to expose `poor ickle sensitive kiddies` to the world as you put it, we might as well show them everything. This may not be a bad thing, but i doubt most people on the forum like knowing. we are all guilty of shielding ourselves from reality, and a MUCH harsher reality than the meat trade at that.
3 year olds can be surprisingly callous towards animals. and one childs story is not another. My cousins kept about 20 hens and when they were slaughtered they were devistated. we were about 8 or 9 at the time.
