Logically we all know that the turkey on the Thanksgiving table was once a living, breathing bird, but very few of us will ever have a hand in the deaths of the animals we eat.
Ariel Kaminer is an exception. She decided to help slaughter her own turkey this year and documented the experience in a thought-provoking essay and video for the New York Times.
Kaminer goes to a halal butcher shop in Queens which allows its customers to pick out their own animals and witness or assist in their slaughter, giving people the opportunity to connect the meat on their plates with actual living creatures. She picks out a Bourbon Red turkey who has lived its days freely roaming around an organic Hudson Valley farm, a happy life most likely, though now "with her almond eyes downcast, her subdued manner suggested a kind of forbearance."
And then there is the slaughter. Out of fear, Kaminer ends up asking the butcher to hold the knife with her. And when it's over? "Stepping out of the slaughterhouse and squinting at the light, I didn’t feel brave. I didn’t feel idealistic. I felt crummy." But slaughtering a turkey has at least removed her for a moment from the disconnected, plastic-wrapped experience of buying meat in the supermarket and for that she is thankful.
We found this article and especially its accompanying video extremely moving. Watching Kaminer look at the living turkey whose life she will soon end and seeing the mix of fear, disgust and shock on her face as soon as the deed is done are powerful reminders of how much we take for granted. We are trying to hang onto this feeling of gratefulness for the animals that end up on our plates, to remember the reality of the slaughter even as we unwrap our feather-less, blood-less birds, so we may sit down on Thursday — and every day we eat meat — with true thankfulness in our hearts.
• Read the article: The Main Course Had an Unhappy Face
• Watch the video: Slaughtering Your Own Turkey
What do you think? Have you ever slaughtered your own animal? Would you want to?
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(Image: Flickr member Shawn McCready licensed under Creative Commons)
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My grandparents lived in a small village, and of course raised their own chickens, ducks, and rabbits. I watched my grandmother slaughter animals many times; one holiday season, I stopped speaking to her for a week when I found out that she had just fed me the bunnies I liked to play with, but I wasn't very sad when I watched the mean old rooster meet his fate.
My husband has been to many slaughter houses when he worked with meat inspectors, and has shared much of the process with me.
I don't have a problem with turkeys and chickens, but lambs and calfs are terrible, and so because I can't contemplate killing them, we don't eat them.
Personally, I am in support of adopting more humane practices of raising and killing animals. For example, the work of Temple Grandin should be more widely applied, along with stricter regulations relating to the raising of animals.
Good point 'mschatelaine' glad you mentioned Ms. Grandin. One point from a video presentation that she make was; many of the design features in animal handling infrastructure that contribute to humane treatment are not difficult to accomplish and may even benefit the operations bottom line.
The halal facility depicted in the NYT video although interesting, is not representative of the agribusiness operations that produce the vast majority of the tonnage of animal meat products that we consume.
I "harvested" 25 roosters last week. It is a very big deal to kill something. To hold a chicken in your arms and walk across a green field and place him upside down in a killing funnel that's attached to the most beautiful, fall-colored cottonwood you've ever seen, and slit his throat, well, you'd think it would get easier after the 5th or 6th one.
We were joined by curious neighbors who wanted to see and be part of where their meat came from. 20-year old boys making bad jokes and giggling--obviously so scared to do what they were about to do. I took them aside and told them they needed to take this very seriously. Maybe they just needed permission, because they were reverent and gentle.
It's an incredible amount of work. Ten of us working a solid three hours by the time all roosters were plucked, innards removed and grocery-store looking chicken was plunged into a barrel of ice-water, awaiting zip-lock bags and the freezer.
Who figures out how humane the killing cones are? The same people who tell you that one dog food tastes better then another?
Killing, unless it's a mercy killing, done with go to sleep drugs, is never humane.
This year, we poured bourbon down their throats, and they did relax. I read recently that Martha Stewart does the same thing. I also read that Temple Grandin says that it stresses the birds to hang upside down in the cones. We probably won't use them next time.
We always look for ways to do it better. And every time, with the utmost respect, we do our very best.
I also don't eat calves or lamb, and I've recently given up all meat that is not free range and grass fed (which pretty much ends up being all meat because the good stuff is so expensive). I was completely deceived when I was growing up because my uncle raised beef cattle on his farm. They wandered around the property, ate all the grass they wanted and had access to better medical care than me, so I thought all cows led this type of life. I learned the true story in high school, and have never been able to look at meat the same way. I'm also the daughter of a hunter, and while I've never killed (with a bow, not a gun) or gutted a deer, I have skinned and butchered many of them over the years. I enjoy being part of the process because I know the deer I'm eating lived a normal life and was shot, tracked, and slaughtered through human skill and not some horrifying assembly line process.
Maybe it's cruel of me, but I wish we could force everyone to participate in the slaughter of their own meat and watch what happens in a traditional factory slaughterhouse. I think it would make a huge difference in the way Americans buy and prepare meat.
I read a story yesterday (From "O" Magazine) about a woman who, through a series of circumstances, took up hunting and decided to see if she could get her holiday turkey the old fashioned way. It's worth the read, although the comments section on the story got a little nasty.
I think if you're going to eat meat you should be more connected to where it comes from and to the sacrifices made by the animals to provide your meal.
We moved to a rural area so we could raise our own animals for meat.
None have been killed to eat yet but we did have to put a sick chicken out of her misery. It was a very sad day and she well cared for up until the moment of her death. Our animals are healthy and happy. They don't live in deplorable factory conditions and they aren't chased down and eaten alive by wild animals.
There's some comfort in that.
Has any one seen The Perennial Plate? Daniel Kline has a series of miniature documentaries about sourcing food. He has done 2 with turkeys (one for this thanksgiving, one for last years.) Both are great.
http://theperennialplate.com/