What's there to say about my chicken processing morning. I get invited to a lot of quirky food "events." This one ranks right up there. It was the 6:45 AM-11:00 AM shift, "processing" Pete and Jen's backyard hens--that's the euphemism used for killing. There's no other way to tell it. I took part in a kill--dozens and dozens of young, healthy chickens were killed to fill pending orders for fresh chicken.
Many of the volunteers were customers of the farm. There's a general string that says that if you're going to eat meat then you should not only know how it got to your plate but you should be able to put it there yourself--anything less is hypocrisy. And the "kill" I participated in was as humane as it is possible to be and still result in a dead, edible bird. So I am closer to understanding what's involved in order to put meat (chicken) on my plate, but the jury is still out (as far as I'm concerned) about how I feel about it.
I have a lot more photos that document the last live seconds of many of the chickens, even a video showing the process; but it wouldn't accomplish anything here to show them other than to provoke a lot of anger and disgust. But it happens--birds, cows, sheep, fish--they are all killed, in various ways, so we can eat them. It's been going on forever. But to see it, to be a part of it, changes things. Makes you question.
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