Eating Turkey this Thanksgiving or Christmas? Would you still eat it if you had to kill and dress it yourself?

Question

I believe that people would eat a lot less meat if they HAD to kill it themselves. Eating intensively farmed meat AND poultry is really damaging to the Environment. Would you still eat your Thanksgiving or Christmas Turkey if you had to kill the turkey and dress it yourself?

The Voice: Yes, I have been able to shoot since I was 8. I have poached and until recently (4 months ago) raised and killed my own animals on our smallholding. My Dad had a butcher's business so I have always been in and out of slaughter houses and helped butchering too since age 8.

Answer 1

No i couldn't kill an animal but i would buy meat off the supermarket shelf so i suppose i am a hypocrite,but i have and with a lot of other people have or are changing what they are eating,Hamburger and french fries and other junk food sales are down as people choose more healthier alternatives.

Answer 2

If I could only eat what I could actually kill..I would be living on a diet of cockroach, a few ants and an occassional fly. I actually ate 3 bites of turkey this thanksgiving as I am not a big fan of meat although I am not a vegetarian..I would MUCH rather eat all the side dishes. If I had to kill what I ate..I would probably give up meat entirely..don't eat it much at all now anyway.

Answer 3

Yes, without question, I would eat the turkey if I butchered it. For one thing, it would be a heritage breed, not some overbred white feathered, dumb as a rock turkey. Eating the rare heritage breed animals as weird as it sounds is actually a way of keeping them around, and keeping the breeding stock healthy.

I would also of course know that the turkey had as wonderful and natural a life as I and my permaculture farm were able to provide for it. It would have had nice pasture to stroll about it, bugs to eat, and lovely places for dustbaths. It wouldn't have spent it's life in cramped conditions, forever trodding in the poo of the other turkeys it lived with.

My husband and I eat meat...we do not appologize for this fact. We do strive to give the animals we raise the kindest and most natural lives possible, even if it is a shorter lifespan.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 4

Hi!

When virtually everyone had to kill the meat they would eat, farming was much more humane. It is only because we are so disassociated from our food, including fruit and vegetables, that we take so much for granted that cruelty has crept into the process. If anyone who wanted to wear a fur coat had to wrestle their own bear to get it, there would be fewer fur wearers too.

When you take a life to sustain your own as a farmer or even a soldier, you have respect for that life and even regret for that life. You are in many ways connected to anything you ever have to kill, from a raddish upwards. As a well known Celtic song regrets, there are now too many who "strike with no respect the deadly blow". Aboriginal people, Native Americans and others still more connected to and therfore more compassionate about the world and all its teeming life understand this far better than most westerners today and are less likely to become vegetarian for neurotic, sentimental reasons - though they are often vegetarian for other good reasons.

Good wishes.

Answer 5

If you want to be a vegetarian that is your business and you want to save the environment by not eating meat or fowl be my guest . Each is entitled to his/her opinion and yes, I would have turkey or poultry if I had to kill and dress the bird myself. And I would enjoy venison for the same reason. And while you are eating your veggies make sure they are organic.

Answer 6

it's def better, but she isn't a vegetarian is she knows she'll eat meat sometimes. why not go all the way and commit? i personally get really depressed around thanksgiving thinking of how many turkey's are killed just because of tradition, then end up going to waste anyway.

Answer 7

Wild turkeys are very good. I have dressed out many that others have shot. I also use the store bought ones if I don't have access to wild turkeys. I just finished dressing out a deer that was given to me by a neighbor and thoroughly enjoyed the tenderloin from it for dinner. Also plan to enjoy the steaks, stew meat, and remaining tenderloin that I put in my freezer.

Answer 8

especially then i would know what it has eaten ,but i would ask a kid to kill it ,they have no soul when it comes to killing animals when they are about 14 ,at least many of the ones i know dont
and the women in the kitchen would clean it ,
but i have no problem cooking it ,I love cooking.
And i would enjoy it ,with a nice bottle of wine

A goose is different ,i had some friends that were geese ,and i could pick them up and they did not even nip me .

I have killed enough in my life when i was a lot younger ,and find it distastefull now,pigs,cows ,deer moose,and much more

Once i trapped for skins 35 years ago ,today it apalls me and has for many years .

Most of theprofesional Hunters that i have met now work more to protect these animals

people change with time about many things

Answer 9

Wow 4 questions in a row, guess I'll answer this one too.

Yes I'll eat it, back in survival training (army) we had to kill our own food. I accidentally trapped a crow. When I try to bury it the instructor caught me red handed. Rule was you have to eat everything you catch. And that was pretty god awful, tasted like an oily, bitter, wet garbage with a hint of game/chick . So after that I think a tasty turkey wouldn't be an issue.

Answer 10

there would be more turkeys wandering around if we did not eat them(yes the would reproduce without our help). . do you know about life cycle. everything eats something smaller. Did you know even if you eat bread the farmer has to pollute the air to cut down the grain. Unless you grow your own food , and hand cut everything to stop pollution . are you going to give up your computer which pollutes because it uses electricity. Everything you do affects the environment. Pass the stuffing please.