Have you ever killed an animal to eat?

Question

I was wondering if you have you ever actually done it, killed animals and eaten them. Not would you do it.

Were you alone or in an all male, all female, mixed group?

Are you male or female?

Question inspired by these answers:

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao7o6eUrVt78c2MqRU3Zwg8gBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20080120061511AA4KJTL

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtL2qejVVUOTHfb3myCPocXsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080120074543AAMDrwO

Answer 1

I've caught a fish and eaten it, does that count? I was with a male friend and, as you probably guessed from my picture, I'm male.

Answer 2

Yes,  Mix group.  Ate it for months.   It was a cow.  Worked on a farm.

Another raised chickens and ate them.  Mix group.  

Killing is not nice and you don't feel good about it.    

Would I kill again to eat.  Yes.  Would I like it NO.

Answer 3

I have only killed a trout when we were camping and ate it.

Too wimpy to do anything else. Thought about killing some quail i hatched because most were males and having them for dinner but when it came down to it, i looked at them and i couldnt do it!

Im a female and at the time i was in a mixed group

Answer 4

Do fish count?  I have killed many by myself, with males, females, and mixed groups.  I am a male.

Answer 5

Yes. I used to have a smallholding. About 50 chickens, 8 ducks, up to 6 pigs, 3 sheep, 2 horses.

The problem with raising chickens is too many male c***s. They naturally fight for dominance, so have to be culled when they're old enough to tell. These usually went to the pot.

I actually found killing baby chicks harder - that had to be done due to illness, or deformed legs etc.

I believe the most important thing is a good quality of life before their time to go. You can actually tell this from the quality of the meat. This was the main reason for rearing my own - their quality of life.

The Pigs were well housed in an open field, and were encouraged to forage for fresh vegetables and pignuts, chickens had 4 acres to roam, and the ducks had a stream.

The sheep  were an experiment, and the horses to ride.

For legal reasons, the pigs had to go to an abotoir early in the morning, for dispatch that day.

Yes, I hope many more people eating meat knew what goes on, as they would give thanks for the life they have taken.- as I do whenever I eat meat.

I am now eat more vegetarian - eating meat only once or twice a week, with fish twice too, and feel fitter for it.

A good quality of life for the animals, with a calm quick end is better than most humans get, and is the best I can hope for.

Answer 6

I have, I grew up on a farm and my family believed it was important that I learnt where my food came from.  We  raised chickens and ducks as well as cows so my first experience was killing a chicken for a sunday roast.

It wasnt as bad as I was expecting, the hardest bit was gutting it (the memory makes me want to urge) but I had no problem eating it after, thats the price you pay for being a meat eater.

And im female.

Answer 7

No.

I am a hypocrite as I eat meat,  (not often though).

Answer 8

No, i haven't killed animals in my life because i think that it's too cruel to kill them. But killing some of them can reduce the population of a specific ahnimal group. But if we kill many of them, i timk that the balance of the ecosystem will be disturbed.

Answer 9

I am a female. I have shot pheasants and rabbits to eat, and also killed chickens for my own consumption (alone).  I have also been there when deer have been shot, I didn't shoot them myself but I was there with 2 others, and I butchered them in return for a share of the meat.  I didn't find the process of butchering the animals gruesome in any way, I am a very practical person and don't have any problem with the humane killing of animals for food, and by doing it this way you can ensure the meat is of excellent quality and the animals have not been subjected to inhumane living conditions.

Oh, and fish too!!

Answer 10

Yes, since we live on a permaculture farm, and raise our own animals, we butcher ourselves.

I'm female.  We almost always butcher together (husband & wife).  It just makes the job easier if you do it together.

I would prefer to have hogs and cattle butchered by the professional butcher.  For the pigs, much of the meat is processed, smoked, exct.  Easier to have the butcher do it.  For the cattle, there's just so dang much of it, it's way easier to have the butcher with all of his professional tools for cutting up the meat do so.

Sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, fish though, I have no problem doing.

My husband and I are meat eaters.  I like the fact that I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the animal I'm eating had the best life possible.  Also that it lived in the most natural way possible.  Usually that means in it's herd, on pasture.  No stressful life, no weird drugs.  I've known that animal since the moment it was born.

I also have customers from all over the world who come to my farm, and butcher here (students at the local University).  Almost all of them find the Americans to be odd.  They do not understand why "we" are not teaching "our" children to take care of themselves, and butcher animals in the proper ways.  "We" means Americans, "our" means American children....my husband and I have no children.

They do not understand why Americans allow this serrious lack of survival skills.  The Africans think American male children will not be able to find "proper wives."  

The Arab customers think Americans will not be able to show proper hospitality to guests if they do not know how offer a freshly butchered animal for a feast for the guests.

The customers from Nepal think we do not properly honnor any of our holidays and/or Gods, because we do not celibrate with freshly butchered animals for those days/Gods.

Customers from other countries think Americans are like children and not properly able to feed themselves.

It's very interesting the glimpse into world views of Americans that I recieve here on my little farm.

The customers all think my husband and I are wonderful, because we actually eat the goats we raise.  Never before have they purchased a goat or rabbit from a white person who actually eat the animals they are raising.

They are so relieved they do not have to lie about why they are purchasing the animal, nor will they hear off color remarks about "how can you eat that."

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 11

Ofcourse not! I'm a vegetarian, I could never!!!

Answer 12

I live entirely on a diet of bush babies, panda cubs, seal cubs, dolphins, marmosets, orang utans and kittens, all of which I kill.

Tonight's menu?

Oh, I think a couple of slices of Bambi....

Answer 13

I kill and eat animals all the time. I love to hunt!  I was the only female in this male group.

Answer 14

No but I wonder how many vegetarians there would be in the world if everyone had to kill at least one animal before being allowed to eat meat.

Answer 15

I killed a c**k pheasant (by hitting it hard on the head with a wheel brace) which had been hit by a passing truck and was flapping around with one wing half torn off.

And, yes, we did eat it!  I was with husband and he held it, while I hit it, just to make sure that it went first strike.

Answer 16

I'm not a veggie but I couldn't bring myself to kill an animal to eat, unless I guess I was starving and there was absolutely no alternative and then the human need to survive may take over.

But I couldn't do what nurses do, I couldn't be a roofer - there's loads of things I couldn't do. But there's loads of things I can and that's what makes human beings so unique.

Answer 17

Have gone fishing many a time.  As much for the peace as the catching.

Mostly with my father when i was younger.

Answer 18

nope never would.

Answer 19

No I haven't and don't think I could.

I could let someone else kill it then eat it.  But the thought of  me actually ending their life, no couldn't do it.

Mind you if I was starving and alone then maybe I would have to force myself.

Answer 20

No. I just don't have the heart to kill an innocent animal myself and then eat it. I don't know why, but I feel different when I buy them in the supermarket

Answer 21

Yes, I was brought up on farms so then I just considered it normal. I still eat meat, but I still feel guilty about killing those animals. But we are naturally carnivorous, but most people now eat meat from supermarkets. Would they still eat meat if they had to kill it themselves? It is not the eating of meat that is wrong, but rearing animals for meat is so wasteful when you consider how much crops could be grown on the same land.

Answer 22

No.

Answer 23

Yes - It's called fishing

Answer 24

Yes I have, there was a lake behind my previous house. Every once in a while me and my brother would go and fish for bass. We would fillet our catch and fry them up. Yum!

Answer 25

If I remember correctly, as a child, I caught the fish and watched them be prepared for the fish fry a couple times.  I have also eaten a lot of meat that I didn't personally kill but that I was one step removed from (my uncle and grandfather used to hunt a lot, and my brother does now, as is quite good at it).  When the fish were prepared it was by my grandfather or uncle, and I'm a girl.  

So I suppose I'd have to answer "sort of".  I was part of the process, anyway, but not the final step.  Doesn't really bother me - I respect nature and everyone's role in it.  Growing up with members of my family that live in more rural areas gave me experience, and appreciation.

Answer 26

No, never. I go to the butcher's instead.

Answer 27

if you call a fish an animal.  i caught a fish for dinner but i did not clean it and gut it.

Answer 28

i could not but my wife did during the miners strike and by the way you can still be hung for rustling sheep

Answer 29

I used to kill animals to eat all the time, but am a vegetarian now.

It's supply and demand. Any time you eat meat, you are killing an animal, as you are the demand end of the deal. So any one who's ever ate meat has killed an animal to eat.

Have I ever killed an animal to eat directly? Nope.

Answer 30

I've caught fish and crabs which I cooked as dinner for friends. Do you call that killing?

Answer 31

Well, I used to do that all the time as a child. The whole family (Mum, dad, 5 kids) would round up the chooks and ducks and ... chop.... we also killed our own goats and sheep and bullocks..... but now that I am a city dweller, I don't have access or opportunity... otherwise I suppose I would still be doing the same thing.... including my children in the experience of the kill!

Vulgar and cruel? No.. It is what we do for food.