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A veterinary blog for pet lovers, vet voyeurs and the medically curious...
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It’s common for me to ponder the ways we euthanize animals. That’s because I’m always looking for the ideal version of “beautiful death.” With each creature I euthanize—beloved rabbits, injured birds, stray cats or well-loved dogs—I really do try my best to make it the most peaceful experience modern drugs can manage.
Because I’m working hard to fatten up my darling doeling Tulip (see how cute, above) for breeding and milking, I’ve been deeply contemplating my options for her babes. If I must get her pregnant before I can milk her then it stands to reason I should prepare for her offspring, right?
To that end I’ve been wondering whether I should keep, sell or slaughter the babes.
Goats can have up to three kids at a time. Tulip came from a triplet-throwing doe, which means she’s more likely to bear more of the same. That’s why I’m prepping for a threesome. In that event, the odds are in favor of at least one male.
Girls? I’ll keep ‘em to milk in the future.
Boys? They’re going. They’ll either be sold to those who would raise them for slaughter or I’ll raise them myself—for slaughter.
So you know, I really don’t relish the concept of raising a supremely adorable animal for meat. Though I eat meat infrequently and carefully, choosing my sources wisely (I think), I’m a believer in the concept of slaughter for human consumption.
As a result, I feel I should buck up and be able to slaughter my own. After all, who better than ME to ensure my animals were handled humanely? If I sold them and entrusted them to another, how would I know they were treated as well as I would if they were in my hands?
Problem is, I don’t know if I can handle it. I’m pretty sensitive (reference my post on veterinarian suicide for more evidence of stress). I don’t know if I can take a captive bolt device (a gun with instantaneous shock power) and flick it at their heads before I bleed them dry. I’m just not sure I have it in me.
Not only do I suffer from knowing that someone else might do it less humanely than I would, I also stress about the fact of doing it at all. And if I can’t slaughter my own Tulip’s babies, does this mean I shouldn’t accept their slaughter at all?
And yet I can’t completely reconcile this with my belief in animal use and my acceptance of animal meat and products for human consumption. It’s a conundrum for sure.
That’s why I’ve been looking into various alternatives for acceptable slaughter techniques, hoping they’ll remind me more of what I do on a regular basis in the office:
1-Compressed carbon dioxide? Ouch! They don’t die pretty. But I can get a portable unit for $2,500 if I want one.
2-Compressed carbon monoxide? We can’t eat the meat afterwards. (Same goes for all the traditional lethal injection methods we use in pets.)
3-How about nitrous oxide? Too expensive. But it does work nicely.
4-Nitrogen and argon gas? Hmmm…this one I’m investigating. It’s fast, painless and doesn’t damage the meat or introduce dangerous chemicals. It’s being used in some Danish poultry plants and the reports are glowing.
Problem is, I haven’t yet found any reports for its use in anything but large facilities for chickens. What would I do? Buy a tank and put a mask over their faces? Construct a chamber? If any of you know more than I do, I’d love to pick your brain on this subject.
Yet even if I find the ideal recipe for euthanasia/slaughter, will I be able to do it on my own to my own creatures? I’m starting to think I’ll have to. If I can’t kill my own meat, how can I face down the next goat curry…or a barbecued chicken wing? How could I even drink milk or consume eggs?
Nope. I’ll have to do it myself. Luckily I have another year before I have to face up to the imminent reality of doing so.
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- Mohandas Gandhi
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Please keep us updated on this one Dr. K, I'm very interested to see what you decide. Thank you for another thought-provoking post!
"euthansia" is defined in AVMA guidelines for every species; it was my impression that humane (including slaughter---definition "murderous,violent,bloody") is defined as a swift state of unconsciousness, and accomplished by various means. It was my impression by reading those guidelines, that although one may view a particular "physical" act as brutal, such as captive-bolt, gunshot, etc., it may be in fact, the humane and preferable method of death.
The gas chamber method did not appear as "ideal"for the animal, nor entirely safe.
Surely there must be people you could contact, whether licensed or not, that are "expert and skilled" in this form of death and know how to minimize pre-death distress & restraint.
I look forward to reading and pictures of the birthing & goat's milk!
But, you don't have to do it yourself. No one would think any less of you if you didn't actively participate in the final act. What you can do is find a place that will perform the needed tasks in a manner you are comfortable with. (Or as comfortable as you can be...)
For me, it is a task I would want to be VERY skilled in, and I'd not think twice about letting another professional handle it.
Also, I believe in minimizing the stess an animal feels during transport (arguably the most stressful component of slaughter). If I can get away with having it done at home...by me or someone else...I think that would go a long way towards getting the most humane slaughter possible for my creatures.
I grew up eating steers I knew (petted, named and hand-fed), and my uncle the butcher would come out to our farm and do the deed. I knew early on the differencce between food and pets, was very thankful to the steers whenever I ate (and knew which one it was), but couldn't watch. I stopped eating meat entirely when I left home because the meat from the supermaarket wasn't worth eating, and was very happy to find that the 4-H animals taste as I remember meat should.
I have not personally slaughtered a mammal larger than a rabbit, but I've shot a few deer, and I've witnessed large animals being slaughtered, and being handled at the slaughterhouse. The deer died much more humanely.
I also think you are spot-on in wanting to reduce stress in transport. The transport and handling at the slaughterhouse can be very rough on animals, depending on the skill with which it is done.
But keep in mind that you want to avoid stressing the other animals; you'll need a place to do the deed where the other critters won't be affected.
I am under the impression that goats of dairy breeds don't have much meat to speak of. But wethered bucks can make good pets and pack animals. So there's that option -- the cop out.
I could only find this abstract but you probably have better access to this info anyway.
Carol P: Yeah, another vet was telling me about this. Unfortunately, I don't live in an agricultural area where these folks work. We have precious little animal agriculture anywhere around these parts--just lots of fruit and veggies (and they're much easier to slaughter).
Regarding the induced lactation; I read an article that recommended human mothers bringing back their milk during disasters when there's no formula available, or inducing a wetnurse. IIRC, it stated that although it was slightly possible to induce lactation in mothers that had never delivered, they believed inducing mothers that had delivered had a lot better chance of re-inducing their milk.
But since some men (natural-born, not surgically re-gendered) have managed to induce lactation, I'd bet it's not as impossible to induce females that haven't delivered in the past.
I did some research on goats some years ago as a part of my endless daydreaming about having one as a pet someday. I learned through that research how truly problematic male goats can be to keep. (eeewww, all that spraying/urinating around ewwww). But isn't there something surgically that can be done to keep them from doing that?
Or if you must, I think it is OK to just euthanize the goat the way you do your patients. Obviously you could not eat him then, but you could bury him. I realize that you are trying to get your courage up to do this to prove to yourself that you can kill your own food, but once you think of him as a pet -- I'm not sure a person should feel obligated to get used to killing pets for food.
I know that I am a hypocrite -- I eat chicken and I don't kill them myself. I know if I had to kill my own food, I would be vegetarian. (not vegan, I have no problem taking eggs . . . ) And that I guess makes me both a wussy and a hypocrite, so perhaps I will go veggie for the third time in my life soon (I have done it twice for a total of 4 years basically because of this conundrum of feeling if I can't kill it I shouldn't eat it. Ah, but a buffalo chicken wing did in my last stint as a veggie. Still, I never resumed eating either beef or pork, so it's only chickens that I have guilt over).
I probably woudn't feel this way if I grew up like my mom, watching her grandfather behead the evening meal (chickens). That method sounded so much more human than both the lives and deaths of chickens today. Matilda is hanging out on the farm pecking at the ground and cavorting with the other hens, when suddenly she is carried over to the stump -- "Matilda, look over there!" CHOP! It's all over. Perhaps under the right circumstances I could behead a chicken. But anything larger that has to have a bolt put through its head? Nah, I couldn't do it. I heard them describe Hallal meat killing on the radio while driving and I nearly crashed from the tears in my eyes.
Once I loved it, I definitely couldn't kill it for food.
and does that make me a bad person because I eat meat all the time and feed my cats meat all the time, but I don't want to kill it myself...I could kill a chicken I think, but I have a problem with mice...sigh...I totally understand your goat dilemma.
do you have to breed the goat only once? or does she need to have babies frequently to be able to keep milking her?
Freezing an animal to death is inhumane, fish fanciers don't even really recommend that anymore. The whole point of euthanasia is to produce a rapid and painless death. Freezing accomplishes neither of those goals. (I think this fact is ignored by folks who suggest it because you don't have to watch the mice in the freezer die badly.)
While flash freezing very tiny frogs or pinkies (think Hans and carbonite) might have once been an accepted practice, individual's home freezers were never appropriate for this method. The whack method could probably backfire as badly as snap traps often do. Not pleasant if you like mice.
Dr. Khuly, if you are within city limits you may not be able to use a mobile slaughter service due to public health laws, or slaughter them yourself, for that matter. I'd check into that so you know your options. (I once knew someone who raised rabbits for meat, neighbors got upset, social and legal discord happened.)
Then if the placement doesn't work out, or if the family should tire of Mr. Wether-bee, you would have no "real" emotional attachment, unless of course, you receive cards, letters, and pictures of how nice and enjoyed he is---then you might have an element of "breeder's pride".
Definitely buys time, and allows for those delectable milk products.
It's a different headspace, raising animals for food.
As pointed out above, find a reputalbe abbatoir (they exist) and send them there. There's always kosher or halal too.
Good luck with your dilemma.
http://www.grandin.com/
there are references in each section too, so she has research support. I don't see anything specific to goats there. Nor do I see any consideration of the pet-human connection. I can speak to this. We have raised chickens and cow for meat. The chickens were never treated like "pets", you have to dissociate them in your mind as livestock. Hopefully you will be able to draw this mental line or distinction, because it makes all the difference.
No problems in a rural area but in suburbia where everyone gets their meat from the supermarket I don't think it would go down well at all.
Still, I don't think a ten year-old suburban kid raised in this culture is quite prepared to see an animal he cared for slaughtered before his eyes. Good point.
The mess left can also attract undesirables. I know what kind of wildlife it attracts here in Canada, which is certainly why we rely on professionals when possible (or those yokels among us who have dedicated areas for this type of thing) I can only imagine the meat-eating critters in Miami that may be enticed by the smell of goat blood and entrails.
Are you prepared for the mess, I guess is what I'm asking. And not from a surgeon's standpoint... from a homeowner's standpoint! Not to mention, what about your local by-laws? Do they allow slaughter of animals in your area? I can only imagine the stories that will fly when the neighbors hear that that vet down the street with the goat in the back yard is outside now skinning baby goats...
I agree with a previous poster as well.. this is something I would want a professional to do. Search out an interview a professional that you're comfortable with. Have you considered finding a Kosher butcher? I'm sure Miami is not a hard place to find one. You're sure to have a well-treated goat there.
I'm just saying... what would happen if something went wrong? If the goat had some crazy reaction to the gas, or didn't die right away... have you ever seen an animal slaughtered? If you feel the need to be part of it, insist on being present. You don't actually have to wield the sword to prove your bravery and conviction, if you know what I mean. The important part is that that goat, his mom, his kin, and all the goats after him will have been treated with love, respect and kindness, right up to and including their death. But that doesn't place the responsibility on YOU to perform the last rights.
One final note of this disturbingly long post (sorry, former farm girl), I agree with the previous poster about exposing your son to this. To watch his pet killed, bled out, skinned and eviscerated, and then served on a platter may be all too much. Even if not now, it may pop up down the road. 4H kids generally do NOT slaughter the animals they care for. They use them for shows, and learn to care for them. When they become too old, or the child wants to move on to a larger animal, the parent takes care of the critter, and provides the next one (from chicken to rabbit, to goat, to pony, to cow, etc). It's only in their teenage years that they are exposed to such things, and you also need to remember that these are children who have grown up in this environment their entire lives. These are not children who have purchased food from the local Safeway for twelve years, and then suddenly start to slaughter their own pets for food. I'm not saying you won't properly prepare your son emotionally for the experience, but in my humble and honest opinion, even as a farm child, it left scars on me, and I was born around it.
We had a cow at a farm I worked at, and silly children (we were 11 or so) we named her. It was a mom and pop dairy operation, and when the cows could no longer produce, they were slaughtered and eaten. It wasn't Grade AA Alberta beef or anything, but it was hormone and antibiotic free (you can't put anything in a dairy cow) and we knew how they had been raised and had in fact birthed many of them ourselves. This one in particular followed us around, let us sit on her in the pasture, you get the idea. Placid cow. Friendly cow. Pet cow, as far as we were concerned.
One day we get a quarter of beef delivered to the house (not an unusual occasion, the farm slaughtered more beef than it can consume, and because it's dairy beef you really can't sell it so it's usually either bartered or sold cheap to friends) and the next day we went to the farm and our cow was missing. Yep, she was in our freezer. I didn't eat beef unless I was outside of town for well over a year. They may have well fried up the cat while they were at it, we were so upset. We were both 4H members, were both well aware of what happened to these animals, had even been to the slaughter house while they were butchering, standing there with buckets, catching bones for the dogs, not bothered by any of it. But this was a cow that we KNEW.
I don't know how much interest your son has in your goats, but after the goat in the bed story it's obvious they're a part of the family. Some might assume that as a boy he won't care what's going on in the back yard with some goats, blah, blah... but have you ever seen a newborn goat? Puppies, kittens... they got nothin on a newborn baby goat.
Once again, my post script has turned into yet another rambling blather, so here it is in short. I know how horribly betrayed I felt when OUR cow was slaughtered. I felt the need to share this with you to show you that even those of us who consider this normal everyday behavior are affected by it. By the way, the other have of the OUR was a boy... who cried for almost a week after she was slaughtered. His parents were flabbergasted. He killed his own chickens on a monthly basis. But they were food, not a pet.
I lived on a small farm for about 10 years (renting an apartment). They raised pygmy goats for 4-H. Now, I know pygmies aren't meat animals, but speaking from personal experience, I don't think any one of us involved with these lovely goaties could have slaughtered or eaten them! (They also had chickens - used only the eggs. They sold baby goats that they didn't use for their own projects - usually to other 4-H families.)
I understand that many 4-H kids do raise meat animals as their projects. I wonder how they do it. I am not a vegetarian, but I think I probably should be! I couldn't put that much love and care into an animal only to know that it will be slaughtered.
I think you have to find what is right for you. For me, I couldn't do it. Those goats were such loving creatures - almost like dogs! Maybe meat goats are different?!
Kim: Wow. Lots of issues here. Yep. I've seen the slaughterhouse thing--been there, done that. I guess that's why I'm looking for a better way. I've emailed my local "local foods" maven who runs our CSA. Hoping she'll be able to put me in touch with the right folks. Though I'll not be butchering them (I have a good butcher already who will take on this job) I was still thinking I wouldn't want my young 'uns to travel. I'll keep you posted.