[too many girls]

we have chickens, ducks, geese and sheep, we make sure from the begining that everyone knows what are pets and what are not, having said that Pip and i don't eat the cobbs that are reared for the table (we have tried to) and couldn't even look at the duck that Sam culled (and ate) because it broke it's leg, we haven't got as far as goose yet, but we do happily eat lamb, i guess we're just weird, we don't see all the birds as pets, just find it too hard to eat them.

[flangey]

I am exactly the same as you Kitkat and could never eat my girls.  I even go so far that when we do have chicken (free range only) we are not to say it out loud and if its going on the bbq we have to wait until the girls have gone too bed!!

[Beano]

It's a strange one isnt it. I have been asked why I eat chicken (free range, has been for years) when I keep pet chickens.
The only thing I can say is that once I have named anything it's off the menu.
The strange thing is, that since our beloved Poppy has been ill, all chicken has been off the menu.
Whenever I see a stock lorry passing I feel very guilty. I have to stop eating meat.

[Stemar]

Some years ago my youngest son had a pet snake which dined on dead mice purchased from the pet shop.  At the same time oldest son had a pet mouse which we had to take to the vet to get treated for a skin condition!

Meantime Tina the cat regularly caught mice and would eat half and leave the remains in the kitchen.

This illustrates very nicely the different roles that mice played in our household at that time


Maria

[tam]

Yep it hypocritical if you want to be technical about it but I also think it's normal human behaviour. The same as you feel more grief if someone close to you dies than a stranger you read about. Doesn't make one life more important than another just we are programmed to care about the people (and animals) we form an attachment to.

[too many girls]

Yep it hypocritical if you want to be technical about it but I also think it's normal human behaviour. The same as you feel more grief if someone close to you dies than a stranger you read about. Doesn't make one life more important than another just we are programmed to care about the people (and animals) we form an attachment to.

i cried a lot when i heard about the little girl Stella drowning whilst on a day out at the seaside with her best friend, i watched the tv at work ( took an awful long time cleaning the tv room)and at home and was devastated when they confirmed they'd found her body, i think if i give my animals a good life ........ i don't know what i'm trying to say

[pawsnclaws]

no not  hypocritical at all although i found this on a bull terrier forum i go on an this is just wrong in all aence of the manner sick pigs

Man eats dog

A man in New Zealand who cooked his pet dog will not be charged as it is legal to do so.
Paea Taufu, a Tongan-born man living in Auckland New Zealand was in the process of roasting his pitbull terrier-cross in a traditional Umu pit-barbecue when animal protection inspectors arrived to investigate.
They were called by a concerned member of the public on Sunday but arrived too late for the animal.
Dog meat is considered an acceptable fare in Tonga. "Dog, horse, we eat it in Tonga. It's good food for us," said Lupi Taufu, Paea's wife.
Under New Zealand's Animal Welfare Act it is legal to kill a dog providing the slaughter is done quickly and painlessly.
But the local Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has criticised the actions. "I find it quite disturbing that someone would kill a pet and then eat it. I'm not okay with that but unfortunately the law allows you to do it," SPCA Inspector Derek Haddy told reporters.
Taufu was not aware that he was doing something uncommon in New Zealand but indicated he would not kill another dog to avoid offending anyone in the future.

[LittleRedHen]

You're normal!  I feel guilty roasting a chicken for Sunday tea, as I swear those hens smell it!  My husband keeps threatening to put Molly in a pot if she doesn't lay an egg again soon, but I watch the way he goes out of his way to make her life easier, and know this just isn't true.  When we bought our hens we agreed that they would be pets.  HOWEVER, if one of those little sweet chicks turn out to be a cockrel - that might be a different story. 

[kitkat]

Thank you all, some interesting replies,mainly though from people who couldn't do it!
   I have read of people doing the deed then putting straight in the freezer until the memory fades, perhaps one of these years i'll try that
     However it must be satisfying to know you're eating something that you've reared , and its had a nice life

[pawsnclaws]

my friend has recently got 9 acres of grazig land and said i could use some so thought about having some lambs to eat and i did think could i really do it but as you said knowing that they have had the best life possible would make me happy eating them although when the time came could i really??? not sure lol

[GrannieAnnie]

We raise chickens and turkeys for the table and we eat them and enjoy them because we know we have given them the best life possible and I think they taste better for it.

But we wouldn't eat one of our layers, firstly because you don't know what it died of (could be catching!) and secondly there is no meat on them.

but you are not being hypocritical if you don't want to rear table birds.  Not everyone can kill an animal to eat it.  I don't like killing, but my Brian is licensed and it doesn't bother him at all.

But if people are willing to eat meat, then I think they should know how it is raised and killed.  Unlike my Nici, who wanted her first turkey from us to be not only dead, plucked and gutted, but put in a plastic bag and frozen so she could pretend it came from the supermarket and wasn't one of those dear little things running around my garden!!!! 
 

[karlooben]

not sure if i can post on this topic  i am a totally vege and havent touched meat since i was 8 { dad craved me turkey an out the blue i just said cant eat that used to run round a field } never touched anything since as  i feel that i dont need to eat it .

my girls are pets but at times when they dont want to go to bed easily i soon threaten them with the oven out of madness  an i think it works  .

ppl have a go at me for not eating meat an yes i do preach to them that alot of animals are killed wrongly but at the end of the day we are all our own and can do as we please ., once we watched a countryfile progamme i think an they were slaughting the cows my sister was liek thats sick an so cruel until i shouted out thats how her sunday dinner gets to her an she didnt speak to me for a while after that , some ppl do block it all out .

[Sassy]

In the purest sense it is hypocritical - therefore I am hypocritical! I could not give up meat but don't want to kill it myself. I think most people feel this way - its normal.

I have raised some chicks and 75% are cockerels!! However, I will get someone else to do the deed and pay with a chicken! I am only hoping that I will be able to eat them.

Those that I know that can cull a beast do it because they are going to eat it and they will freely admit that they do NOT enjoy or like doing it. I think this is a healthy way to be.

[Maeve]

I have not been able to eat chicken since I got my first one in April.  Not only could I not eat Henrietta or Koko -I can't eat any other chicken either!  My husband, who is vegetarian , is keen to get a lamb in the hope that I may react in a similar manner.....

[Foxy]

the only time it has felt a bit odd was recently, when sat out in the garden enjoying a fabulous barbecue with lovely cajun chicken, to find some of my birds perched opposite staring at me silently like something out Hitchcocks film "The Birds" very disturbing.....