Teaching Young People Ethical Animal Slaughter

By Joel Salatin
Published on January 7, 2016
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Salatin and his contemplative young crowd pull heads and cut feet at the 2015 MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in Topeka, Kansas.
Salatin and his contemplative young crowd pull heads and cut feet at the 2015 MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in Topeka, Kansas.
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Jeffrey Ward teaches his 3-year-old daughter, Abigail, how to butcher an ethically raised lamb.
Jeffrey Ward teaches his 3-year-old daughter, Abigail, how to butcher an ethically raised lamb.
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Micah Carter, age 10, processes a squirrel as his sisters and father look on near Asheville, North Carolina.
Micah Carter, age 10, processes a squirrel as his sisters and father look on near Asheville, North Carolina.

Since 2012, David Schaefer, with Featherman Equipment, and I have demonstrated poultry processing at MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIRS. In our poultry demonstrations, David and I go to great lengths to teach humane techniques for slaughter, which David calls “squawkless dispatch.” At each Fair, David and I kill, scald, pluck, eviscerate and chill eight pastured chickens, and leave little to the imagination. (If you haven’t been to a MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR, go — it’s the experience of a lifetime.)

Even with three years under our belts, a 9-year-old attendee surprised David and me during the 2015 Oregon Fair by innocently asking to come up on stage with us during the demonstration. Naturally, we agreed, and before I knew it, this young person had pulled off a dead chicken’s head and raised it triumphantly. The crowd hooted and clapped.

Before David and I could collect ourselves, other children approached. Some peered into the scald water. Others grabbed a souvenir foot. A few even pulled off heads. David and I looked at each other and realized we had definitely added a new dimension of theatrics to our no-nonsense session. At the following Fair, in Asheville, North Carolina, we asked parents to allow their children to come forward — and nearly a dozen did!

While the response to this story has been overwhelmingly positive, some folks strongly object to letting children actively participate in animal processing. I’d like to tackle this thorny issue a bit because I believe that many of the negative reactions to exposing children to animal slaughter are built on two major misconceptions.

Meat Myths

The first misconception at play states that because eating meat is unnecessary and immoral, killing sentient beings is uncivilized and uncharitable. Refusing to kill animals does not indicate a new state of evolutionary cosmic awareness; rather, it reveals profound disconnection from the life-death-decomposition-regeneration choreography that underpins all life on Earth. Everything is eating and being eaten; if you don’t believe me, go lie naked in your garden bed for three days and see what eats and what gets eaten between you, the bugs and the veggies.

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