The Cull
I was out working on “Super Max” yesterday when I heard two shots of a 22 hand gun. I knew what the sound meant. It came from my brother’s place. He had been putting it off and putting it off, but yesterday was the day to cull a three month old buck from his goat herd. I wandered over to his place to render any assistance I could.
Slaughtering an animal is a serious and somber occasion. It generates a lot of gravity for people that normally kill nothing larger than a rat.
Like me, he takes the animal that is to be culled far from the other animals. Death is swift and it’s the careful dressing that takes the time. We hung the goat from its back legs to let it bleed out from the slice across its neck. Once the blood finished dripping we let it down and restrung it by neck and horns and placed the offal bucket under to collect all of the innards as we gutted the kid.
We commented that more people would be vegetarians if they had to kill, bleed, gut, skin and butcher their own food.
Some of you may ask why this kid needed to be killed. Basically, it was because it was a buck. Most goat herds have only one make if one at all. Male goats (and sheep) when mature stink and can be very disruptive. They are worth a dime a dozen. My brother has dairy goats so his whole thing is milk production. You can’t milk a buck.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
18 Comments:
Maturing males beginning to stink and be disruptive? Fits humans.
LOL...Pam
But, dearest Tang-girl, I refrained from any talk of culling said stinky distruptive adolescent boys
That would be over the top for even me!
Crap, I just said it though....
Hmmm.... I'm not sure I like the direction this conversation is going.. On the other hand, I've got a few young "bucks" that could use some serious culling..... but I'm sure as snap not going to eat any of them. Bleah.
oh no! Jail Boy Darev is scared of us little girls!!!! LOL
And Guy, c'mon...."you can't mile a buck".
That kinda language is only gonna get you some interesting comments, you have to admit. I am surprised Tang-girl didn't go there right away!
lol...was posting with one eye open
I have always said that I am so glad that meat comes nicely packaged in the grocery store. Even then I still have a difficult time dissociating what it is that I'm eating. It's not even just the slaughtering that bothers me, but the living conditions of some of these animals that end up on our plates. I try to encourage everyone I know to buy local from small farms.
I would definitely be a vegetarian if I had to kill what I ate.
Pam, don't be a bitch with the other readers. Tango is too kind to pick on my in public comments. She reserves that for our emails.
Darev, a little depo-prevera should do the trick...that and some loaf.
Zoe, Small animal operations are where the animals get the best care. This animal didn't have a care in the world until it was too late to realize.
Bitch? Bitch? I'm not picking on you, just laughing about not milking a buck (goat). Still laughing. And I do hope the Tang-stress is giving you plenty o' sh*t today in her emails!
Pam, mind your manners, it is Darev and Tango, not Jail Boy and Tang... Don't make me come over there.
dare you.
I drove by you 4 times yesterday.
I castrated a kid goat one time...it wasn't easy compared to a lamb. Good thing I was drunk when I did it, otherwise I would'a told the owner to find someone else. They said they'd already asked a vet how much it would cost and he said it was a couple of hundred bucks. I did it for a few beers. He turned into a pretty good looking animal for the little boy who's pet it was.
I have 3 roosters sitting in a cage in my garage right now because my husband is too attached to eat them. I will have to find them a distant home with people who will never tell my husband they ate them.
Columbiacritter
A perfectly healthy animal whose sin was being male. On the other hand, I suppose what we do to animals is no worse than what we do to each other. Doesn't make me feel better but it is what it is.
Anon, The old fashioned way with sheep is easy, it just looks weird.
Critter, I thought you had an Asian friend that was in the chicken adoption program.
Mo3, no sin, just reality of an unnecessary addition to a flock. Though you are vegetarian, few other people are, and when one does eat meat it is much better knowing your food was healthy and isn't pumped with antibiotics and salt water and has lived a good life before the point of death.
Killing, gutting, and cleaning an animal is definitely a hard task for most people. Maybe in our more barbaric years no, but now'days its definitely something that most people don't have face or deal with personally. I am vegetarian, partially because I personally don't feel comfortable doing it myself, but I have a lot of respect for small farmers and those who take the time to do it themselves. Meat is an important part of life for humans and I admire the process of caring for your food from birth to death.
Nas,Slaughter days are somber and nothing to be celebrated. It is never easy for us, the animal or the animals that are live on, but they accept the change pretty quickly. Thanks for your compassion.
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