do you slaughter out of sight/sound of the rest of the herd/flock?

[bj taylor]

I've never killed an animal & I will be trying soon, starting on a rooster. I have a good place to work, but it would be where the animals range. does this make them more skittish to be around you? same question applies for goats. if they saw me kill one & process - would they fear me then?
sorry if that's a stupid question, but the killing part is, no doubt, the hardest to think of. when I do get the gumption to do it - I don't want to make any more mistakes than necessary.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I do not do it out of sight and I have found it doesn't make a difference either way. In fact, roosters, chickens, turkeys etc, love to eat the remains and bits and pieces you throw behind.

Now the livestock however DO get afraid of the gun noises but if you aren't using a gun I have found they don't care either way either. We just did our first two lambs and goats and it was done in front of the pastures. The ones inside didn't seem to care. The scary parts for them was chasing the sheep around trying to catch them (will do a day in advance next time) and the gun noise. That's it. Hope this helps!

 

[secuono]

If you aren't hurting the animal so it screams or not using a gun, then it doesn't matter. The others just don't give a hoot.

 

[treeclimber233]

I butchered a turkey the other day. Her friend stood right there watching the whole process and then calmly walked to the gate so I could let her back into the field with the goats constantly calling her now dead friend.

 

[Pioneer Chicken]

So far, we've only slaughtered any animals we butcher (we've just done chickens, rabbits, and a friend's goat, once) out of sight. The only sound that any animal could possibly hear is if a rabbit squeals during slaughter.

 

[TigerLilly]

I know this is an old thread, but I feel I have to add my experience.
I had a miniature zebu bull ( breeder) & a zebu x (meat project). The meat project was put down on my property & carted off to be processed for later pick up.
My breeder went BULListic from the smell of the blood. I had to walk around carrying a shovel for protection! He was stamping his hooves, pawing at the ground & charging at me. Freaked me out, but I'm thankful that nothing major happened. I just stayed away from him for the rest of the day. He was fine the next day, but it should be noted that my breeder was bottle-fed, halter/leash trained. A sweetheart in every sense of the word. The guy that was taking care of the slaughter said it was normal behavior. At least I'll know better next time!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Chickens could care less - they will happily drink the blood of the chicken they roosted next to last night!

Pigs don't seem to care either as long as you kill thier buddy with the first shot. You don't want one running around screaming bloody murder because he will stir up the other one.

I had to put down a doe once who was in a pen with others - no other choice...didn't seem to upset the goats either.

My horses, however, seem to respond to death more than any of the other farm animals. They'll gather around while we're burying something and want to sniff and sometimes even lick the dead animal. I've even had them paw at the grave... Weird!

 

[Womwotai]

I process my chickens, turkeys and ducks in sight of everyone and the only time I've had a reaction was doing a turkey. A turkey hen stood very close and appeared to get quite agitated. I think it was that she was calling to him and he wasn't responding more than that she was upset by seeing him killed. I carried him away to clean and by the time I returned, she was over it.

 

[boothcreek]

We kill our steers amongst the horses and other cows during feeding time(nice peaceful routine, nothing o stir anyone up with). Wait 'til everyone is eating, walk up to the animal hold the rifle to his head(we train for weeks with a stick, touch his head in the passing while walking thru the herd etc) and he is down and gone with his head in the feed before he even hears the bang and neither the horses or other cows flinch.
Sheep work in a similar fashion. Usual feeding routine and then lights-out.

Big thing is that you get them down first shot, no fuss. If they just collapse on the spot and make no distress sounds the other animals don't seem to worry at all. They freak when something starts wailing or making awful painful noises.
The only one who takes off at a gunshot is our Bull because he suffered a through and through shot through his shoulder/chest by a hunter(who illegally shot onto our pastures thinking Henry was an Elk and then took off without notifying us) years back and any gunshot makes him jumpy(understandable).

When butchering fowl I have to be careful whatever birds free range do not carry off their dead brethren's carcass when I am not looking....... Fowl couldn't care less really.
Turkeys sometimes get offended and will beat up on the already dead bird. Usually if you kill the higher ranking bird the lower ranking bird sees his/her opportunity to strike and win a fight against the already dead bird... They are opportunistic...... not necessarily smart tho....... lol

Pigs are very curious and calm if the killing process is nice and calm(aka, no squealing). The gunshots don't bother them none. Blood they think is mighty tasty. I usually only need a handful of grain to keep the first pig standing in the right spot, the rest only want to lick the blood puddle and don't care for the feed at all.

 

[trampledbygeese]

For me I've noticed that chickens don't care at all, in fact, they will gladly eat their fellow flock member alive or dead.

But all the other animals we've had get freaked out by the sounds, smells and sight of death. The larger the mammal the worse it is for them. Rabbits mildly freaked out, goats and sheep, a week of being skiddish around us, llamas take about 2 months to recover back to trusting us.

However, we don't eat a lot of meat in our family so one or two animals a year is ample, sometimes one animal will last us two or more years. So our critters aren't use to death here.

On my friend's farm where she processes meat quite frequently, and does so right in front of the goats, the animals couldn't care less. They just stand around watching, complaining that they haven't been milked yet. No stress, no skittishness, nothing out of the norm for them at all. Even with the sound of the shot, it's fine for them. I don't know all the goat expressions, but there seems to be a mild sense of entertainment in the way they look at us.

I guess it has a lot to do with what the animals are use to. If they are exposed to it at an early age then they probably don't mind. But when it's new, sudden, they have a change in herd dynamic, all that stuff must make them stressed.

For us, the biggest problem is that we aren't allowed to use a gun here, so we either have to take the animal to somewhere that does allow it or hire someone to do it with a knife. The knife is okay because we hire a fellow to do it Halel style which ensures that the animal is calm and is done in one swift cut. But for me the gun is easier on us who watch and the animal loses awareness faster.