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Make sure to watch the video. Just bought a pregant doe and a wether. Should make the next July 4th BBQ memorable.
Get a good livestock guard dog, or build a very good fence... I don't think 'playing dead' works with the sort of predators that are inclined to go after goats. ;)
Next BBQ, chevon is on the menu! Be sure to bring a moose...
Guess I got past that when I was young. Sunday supper meant killing two chickens. Want bacon with those eggs? Kill a hog. My grandma had her pets though, and those were never taken for food.
Personally, I feel better taking my own cow for meat than I do going to the store and buying steaks. I know that my cow had prime pasture, freedom to move, proper shelter and excellent care.
So to answer your question:
>>Yuk, how can you eat something you've raised?
I use a knife and a fork. :)
knife and a fork
Unless it's ribs or a drumstick, then I'd use my fingers.
We eat what we kill (one bullet mostly, too!) after field-dressing it, and getting it home clean then butchering it. Wild meat is far better healthwise than the stuff you buy in the market.
Besides which, elk is so far superior to beef there's just no comparison, and moose is that good too. I'm a bit less enthused over venison, because so many western mule deer are tough no matter how old or how you cook the meat (a function of the heat and drought I would assume, because 20 years + ago it was quite different in both flavor and tenderness).
About the only game animal I'd prefer NOT to eat is western Rio Grande turkey - now talk about TOUGH....
That's different than raising it and then killing it. I guess I become too attached to animals. I know I wouldn't be able to kill anything that I'd fed, sheltered and named.
Plus, I'm a sissy who doesn't like guns, but that's besides the point. I still like my dinner to be strangers.
I don't know that that's BAD, just leaves some folks alienated from "life" in a way....
Yes, I prefer buying my meat wrapped in plastic, but that's because I couldn't stand killing anything. Actually, I prefer my meat wrapped in paper, but I'm sure that's not the point you were making anyway. I grew up in the suburbs, with a dog. It would've been illegal for us to raise and kill our food.
I'm pretty sure the four dogs, six parrots, cat and the amazing Oranda who can't swim, keep me connected to life. ;)
What I was getting at was that I'm well aware of all of the issues surrounding this discussion, I just have trouble understanding how people can mentally tell the difference between their housepets and their animals who are raised as food. Once I name something, I can't think of it as anything other than a pal. I don't have any problem hearing other points of view. This isn't religion or politics for me, just an "I don't get it" sort of thing. Kind of like how I don't get how half of my friends hate cilantro, when I love it.
A lot of people I know specifically name their meat animals things like Thanksgiving and Christmas (for a pair of turkeys), or Bacon, Ribeye, etc. People I know who raise chickens for meat just don't name them at all. And they don't let their cows in the house with their dogs and cats. ;)
OTOH, I had some elderly neighbors in Oregon who'd had a pair of pet cows for years, because they became pets, and I think I'd have to hire (or bribe) someone to do the killing, but once it's done there's no sense letting good meat go to waste, so the eating wouldn't pose any particular problem.
