Directly from the producer

I've never really raised any animals for eating as I don't have the kind of living environment suited for that, but I'm not sure I could even if I did.
I think that if I went to feed an animal every day, I might create an attachment and have trouble killing and eating it.
Of course this is just a hypothetical, it's just an experience that I don't have, I figure I'd trade my animal with another farmer's animal and eat each other's

 

I have no problem with slaughtering an animal for my food. When I was a kid I used to the thought of having to take the life of an animal terrified me. When my little brother [he was about 4 then] witnessed a goat being slaughtered he lost interest in eating meat forever. I suppose anyone who's actually not done something like that before would be unwilling to eat that meat.

Most of my food, I get straight from my farm so for me, I never buy meat from a supermarket.

 

I would not, could not raise animals then kill them. I have easy attachment issues so a no go. I will stick to buying from a butcher or supermarket.

 

We used to grow pigs when I was little. Seeing them 'put to sleep' was odd at first but after a few years I got used to it and started helping out - from making the fire to cutting the meat, I did it all. The one thing I didn't do is off the animal myself. All in all, I'm proud of the skills I acquired.

And I agree with you Gelsemium, not only it is cheaper to grow the animals ourselves but also healthier. And let's not forget, the living conditions for animals are way better on a family farm than in those mass production farms where they have little or no space to move.

 

We used to have chickens as pets, and we sometimes kill them when they aren't producing eggs anymore or when they harass other chickens, or they simply becomes pests in the house. My dad can't bear killing them so he asks other people to do it. Then when it's done they can have it and we are just given some of the meat. In my experience, old chickens don't taste that good, their meat isn't as soft as compared to chickens that are being sold in the supermarkets. But killing chickens is not something we regularly do, we usually just buy food and meat at the supermarket.

 

I don't think I can stomach it, or at least I don't think I'd enjoy the food as much if I knew I was just playing with the animal a while ago. Then again, it may be just because I've recently been growing to feel more and more compelled to turn vegetarian, so I already am having some confusion with my sentiments towards eating meat anyway. I surely can get over it after I've grown used to it, if I really had to, but I think the practice would only tip my scales over to the vegetarian side more likely than it is to get me used to eating animals direct from the backyard.

 

I've heard that it is not uncommon for farmers to be vegetarian since they grow attached to the animals they are raising. Makes sense, and I probably would be vegetarian as well if I were surrounded by all those animals.

I wouldn't have a problem buying fresh chickens from local farmers though, since they were probably raised in a much more humane way, and similarly slaughtered in a humane way. The factories that mass produce chickens do all sorts of hideous things to them throughout the course of their short lives, from injecting them with growth hormones, to clipping their beaks off, to forcing them to live in tiny confined bins. They also soak the meat in a chlorine solution, as opposed to the proper method of letting the slaughtered chickens hang to dry out. It's pretty gross what the factories put out.

 

I've raised farm animals before and eaten them, but I've never personally killed them. I did get some satisfaction, though, in knowing that the animal was raised right, that it wasn't in some tiny cage or pen then mercilessly slaughtered. I liked knowing that it wasn't needlessly pumped with antibiotics, only to get sick and pumped with more.

 

I think you're right Gelsemium, in my experience farmers are rarely vegetarians, mostly because they understand from the get-go that those animals are being raised with the only purpose of being slaughtered for feeding themselves and their family.

There is no comparison possible between a farmer-grown animal and a factory-raised animal, they are much better treated and I think you can even taste it, the meat isn't as bland and it's more tender as well.