Table bird or Laying bird?

[armadillo]

OMG! So what market are they aiming the 'dispatchers' at and what are they for?

[Hilary B]

Those who lack the imagination to see that adding in a device might be easier on the human, but only adds another detail to the stress on the birds, and that one is for culling deformed or sick baby chicks/ducks

[armadillo]

I agree hilary b. - I don't think that killing a hen with one of those is going to make it any easier on the hen. It clearly has been designed with the human in mind. I don't know if it would be worse than the other methods described though - they all seem pretty stressful to me. Is it possible to send them to sleep using rum-soaked raisins first, or is that me being an inexperienced wimp?

[Hilary B]

If you want to handle a feathered drunk.....<g>
In fact most chicken make no attempt to struggle when held ready for slaughter. I have several times had a turkey placidly accept having the broom handle laid on its neck, and the only flutter was when I actually pressed down on it for a fraction of a second before pulling. If one of those turkeys had fought, I probably wouldn't have been able to restrain it, but they never did. I think they are too thick to realise, until it is too late.

[lynda66]

i was thinking more like take it to the abattoir and get them to do it ...... snapping necks and pulling off heads really isn't in my design ....... i could probably eat one of my chickens someone else had killed ........ i just don't think i could actually kill it and i would definitely have to stay detached from it..... will they do that at an abattoir?

i'm still certain i couldn't eat porky though

[BarleySugar]

My father used to raise turkeys and chickens for the Christmas market, and I agree the birds did not seem stressed just before 'dispatch. He would always do the killing in a separate shed to the plucking, using the method described by Hilary B. He was always very insistant on being humane and reckoned the meat tasted better if the animal hadn't got upset just before dying. As children we used to help by plucking, and we weren't distressed by the process. The flapping is, I believe, the relaxation of the muscles after death, it doesn't indicate panic on the part of the bird, similar to the well documented fact of chickens running around if their heads are chopped off.
We used to keep a pig in the garden for pork, but we all knew it was for dinner, so didn't make it a pet. Similarly for rabbits, those destined for the table were not named or petted, but we all had our own pet rabbits that we spoiled rotten, and even if Dad was short on an order, they would never have go to the butcher. He wouldn't even ask.

[Hilary B]

i was thinking more like take it to the abattoir and get them to do it ...... snapping necks and pulling off heads really isn't in my design ....... i could probably eat one of my chickens someone else had killed ........ i just don't think i could actually kill it and i would definitely have to stay detached from it..... will they do that at an abattoir?

i'm still certain i couldn't eat porky though

Abattoirs charge, and I doubt they would do poultry anyway. Just getting the birds there would cause a LOT more stress than killing them at home. Find a knowledgeable neighbour, and offer him/her one out of the first batch for killing them. Once you have seen it done, you may find it doesn't bother you as much as you thought. If it really bothers you that much, don't keep table-birds.
It really isn't fair to cause a bunch of chickens the distress of tranporting them because you can't face killing them at home, and yes, stress before slaughter does taint the meat.

[lynda66]

ok that's convinced me ..... pet chickens and eggs only it is

oh and a couple of little duckies

[Birdie Wife]

I use the broomstick method too, I found it really quick and easy, and the bonus is that when the chicken is upside down, it stops struggling because the blood goes to its head and it goes woozy. I've heard different things about the dispatchers, apparently many people find it's not as quick and simple as the makers would have you believe - there is a knack to it.

[MaureenHall]

Think I'm like Lynda - it'll just HAVE to be pets and eggs. Don't think I could eat something I've known

[lynda66]

i think i could eat it, if i'd stopped myself getting attached (well once its dead it would be a waste not to i guess) but theres no way i could kill it, and i definitely couldn't let anyone else kill it if it had been a pet.

reminds me of when i was a kid, and talked my parents into letting me have rabbits, they said ok, get a male and a female and we can eat the babies ..... amazing how the rabbits babies always had homes the moment they were born lol ....... then as i got more rabbits, i supplied the local pet shop with babies, which paid for their food ....... we never did eat any, ended up with about 30 lol