There is a great movie called Planeta Verde which really highlights the lunacy of so many socially acceptable practices.

When I was a young teen, I kept chickens. My neighbour had some hens too and he was preparing one for lunch. He showed me how to wring a chicken's neck, He was a vicar, a grown up, so I did as I was told and watched. I wasn't squeamish, I just thought that it was a ridiculous way to kill a chicken. I also recall how he seemed to enjoy it a little too much. Maybe it was embarrassed laughter because the poor little bird ended up with a neck like a giraffe by the time he finished with it No doubt it tasted great after he gave grace.

So I was introduced to killing birds by an adult and many of the cloth, to boot. And it really was no big deal - then.

I never culled a chicken that way ever. I learnt a far more humane way, if there is such a way. The broom handle approach. Chickens do go completely limp and calm if held by their back legs, so you combine that with placing their head on the ground while they are oblivious to what's going on. With your foot you move the broom handle over the back of the birds neck. And in one move, both feet on the handle and yank. It's very effective.

So when adults said it was time to eat a chicken, I would cull them. Weird how we say cull, like we are nicing up the word kill. I learnt how to pluck them. My old man used to be a butcher so he took over from there

I remember the first time, him being the dad, taking charge. I also remember him turning away from as he started gagging, as he went through a process he must have done a thousand times when he was a pro butcher.

I look back and wonder, why those adults felt they had to teach me what they did. But I especially remember my dad. I am sure he was having some sort of epiphany as he did what he had always done as a younger man, to earn a living or whatever the justification was

I don't want to piss off the carnivores who might read this. I was one til aged 50, something changed in my head and I literally took the delicious half chewed fillet steak out my mouth and never ate meat since. And I don't want to antagonise vegans, because whilst I eat mainly a "vegan diet" I exploit chickens, eat my own eggs and need goats cheese to keep me healthy, so I am still the enemy in the eyes of the extreme view holders. But I'm a middle way kind of person.

I understand perfectly well that there is a time when animals need to be put out their misery and, you know, if a chicken is suffering, I can help speed their end in relative peace. But to show my daughter how to kill and prep a chicken for Sunday lunch, as some sort of rite of passage, I don't get it. And I am sure she would not be as compliant as I was her age if I put her through the process..

I promised a friend, a person so spiritual, with the wisdom already of the aliens from the Planets Verde looking at our society practices in horror and bemusement.I promised her to take care of my chickens without resorting to the pot.

As long as they are laying eggs there is absolutely no food justification for killing a bird. After they stop peak laying, 2 years, they don't lay as many eggs, but it's not zero. And even when they do stop being "productive" in year 5 maybe,, all the while they are still fabulous little shitters and scratchers, friends of the soil. It's not the easiest option, but it will be a no cull policy on my upcoming little chicken farm. The birds can live near free while technically being exploited and we can all get fat on eggs.

#chickens #vegan #carnivore #foodstr