Kill it, Cook it, Eat it

[MaureenHall]

Did anyone see this Christmas Special about how our turkeys and geese are raised and prepared for Christmas? I did, and although I was a bit squeamish about watching the birds being bled (obviously in ideal conditions in a studio), I think now that if I did raise some boy birds for the table, if they could be dispatched in the same way as the turkeys on the programmme were, then I'd feel comfortable about eating them. Not happy about the way they did the geese though.

[fitzilian]

how was it done? i missed it - but i have a boy that we'll have to 'dispatch' when he starts crowing....

[MaureenHall]

The bird wasn't just stunned before being bled, it was killed outright with the electrodes on the head. It might be online to watch, was on BBC3 last night, but I think that was a repeat

[Hilary B]

For tyhose physically able to do so, and on a small scale, the traditional 'neck break' method is as humane as any. With large birds, like turkeys and geese, this usually involves a broomstick or similar.
I am not convinced that any 'device' is any kinder, and most of them allow the bird a certain amount of time to realise what is happening.....

[lynda66]

i just can't get my head round shoving the birds head under a broomstick ...... i'm sure it is as humane as some, but i'd rather be cuddling it when it is killed, which is why i'm still intending getting one of those proper killy things .....

[Dobby]

found a link just going to watch it
BBC iPlayer - Kill It, Cook It, Eat It: Christmas Special

[angelat]

cook it kill it eat it

hi all,

well made the mistake of watching this and wish i hadn't. know that i am a real softie but was cringing when these poor birds were taken out of the pen, knowing what there fate was. watching them being slaughtered was awful. am going to give my girls some grapes tomorrow as a treat, no one is touching my girls!!

[frias]

I won't be watching it. Yes I am a hypocrite because I eat meat but I I don't want to know about dispatching and certainly couldn't eat anything I had kept at home. I got back from Spain last night and the first thing I did was go out with a torch to count up to make sure I still had all my girls. Luckily my neighbour had looked after them well and they were all OK. If fact so well they laid more eggs for her than they do for me!

[BrideXIII]

sorry guys but i am going to give you a heads up here.

they do NOT know what their fate is, YOU do, they are animals, beautiful as they are, but they dont think like we do, so that broomstick to them is not impending doom, its just somethin to peck at, do not make the mistake if you are going to eat them, of humanising them. sorry know a lot of people dont want to hear that.

[bobleponge]

I'm with Bride on this one. For meatatarians like me, it would be niaive at best to think animals aren't killed to be eaten.
A humane killer is good, but when I killed my birds for the table, I broke their necks before bleeding them. I handled them daily, so they were totally used to it, and they had no stress at all in the last seconds of their lives, as they didn't know what was coming.
If you know what you're doing it's over in a microsecond for the bird, and you also have the satisfaction of knowing that the bird had a much better life than anything T$%co chucks out at 2 for a fiver.

[MaureenHall]

The reason I wanted to watch the programme, and previous ones about lamb, pork & beef, was not to put me off eating meat, but to understand the whole process from beginning to end. If the animal or bird had simply been bled to death as is the custom in some cultures, then I couldn't eat it. I wanted to know that my meat had been rendered unconscious as quickly and humanely as possible before death.
I'm hoping to raise some table birds next year. Whether I will personally eat the end product remains to be seen. What I do know now is that I couldn't kill the birds myself, or do the plucking and drawing because I'm a wimp! I'm hoping that one of my other chicken-keeping friends nearby will also have some ready at the same time and will do the deed for me, or we'll send them all to a good abattoir, giving me back a number of freezer-ready birds so that I don't know whether they're the ones I raised or not.
I really do respect non-meat-eaters point of view, I have 1 vegetarian daughter and 1 vegetarian granddaughter who keep chickens themselves. I'd never try to force my views on them, rather let them decide for themselves. In the meantime, I do like meat and I'll keep on eating meat. All meat and poultry is now an expensive luxury for me as I will only buy free-range, preferably from Farm shops or good butchers. Thank goodness I still have veggies in the garden and at the lottie to stretch out my pension and my meals

[Alison]

I won't be watching it. Yes I am a hypocrite because I eat meat but I I don't want to know about dispatching and certainly couldn't eat anything I had kept at home. I got back from Spain last night and the first thing I did was go out with a torch to count up to make sure I still had all my girls. Luckily my neighbour had looked after them well and they were all OK. If fact so well they laid more eggs for her than they do for me!

I would prefer to eat something which I had raised at home as that way I could be 100% sure that it had been reared and dispatched as I would wish.

[frias]

Alison, I understand what you are saying and I'm not against anyone killing their own meat birds. I'm just saying I couldn't do it and I don't want to watch it either. In some countries they eat dogs,cats,guinea pigs etc. That's their choice. It's not for me. My hens are pets the same as the family dog or cat.
My niece keeps meat birds and my sister shoots. That's not for me either but I wouldn't try to stop them. Only if it was done in a cruel way.
I will continue to stick my head in the sand as far as killing my food is concerned!

[MaureenHall]

I respect your views Frias, and I couldn't eat any of my pets. What I'm going to find difficult in the first place is to brainwash myself into knowing that some birds will be meat and some will still be pets. Once I get too attached to them, I couldn't eat them.

Who's for a nice veggie frittata