FarmTina

On Animal Cruelty and Eating My Rabbits

I've gotten some feedback about my plans to raise and eat rabbits that accuses me of animal cruelty. While I can truly appreciate passion for any cause, especially issues of humanity and compassion, I think this accusation is coming from an emotional place instead of a rational one.

People can't see past the cuteness of rabbits. We personify rabbits in story books and Easter tales, and you can look a "bunny" in the eyes and melt over his fluffy fur and floppy ears. Do you get the same feeling about a dirty grunting farm pig, or a slimy salmon? Rabbits, pigs and fish are animals that are low on the foodchain and commonly domesticated for food, yet the cuteness of rabbits seems to be putting them in a different emotional category. We've all had pet goldfish, but when a boy goes fishing with his grandpa, no one says, "Aww, what about the cute little fishy?"

If I am not killing my own meat, then someone else is going to be doing it far less humanely in a slaughterhouse. The more we can separate ourselves from the slaughterhouse industry (either by living a vegetarian lifestyle, handling the slaughter of our own meat, or creating relationships with local farms), the less of a demand there will be for this type of treatment towards animals. Killing my own food is actually a step towards preventing animal cruelty.

Photo of a commercial turkey farm from flickr user Jaci Berkopec

Animal cruelty is the act of hurting an animal and allowing it live to feel the pain, such as beating a dog, or cutting off the tusks of a living elephant. It is knowing an animal is in pain and then consciously allowing it to continue suffering.

Animal cruelty is also killing an animal without intending to use all of it's parts, such as hunting for sport and then discarding the kill, or poaching gorillas for nothing other than their prized feet and hands. It is killing a goose for it's delicious liver and then throwing away the rest of the carcass.

Animal cruelty is forcing a large animal to live in a small cage, feeding it hormones so that it's meat becomes so swollen that it's own legs break under the weight, and then killing the animal on an assembly line so it can be sent off to KFC. Check out the documentary Food, Inc if you don't believe this happens.

Samin Nosrat, the chef from my Complete Rabbit class, has some interesting things to say about the same topic. What are your thoughts?

Farm Wisdom: Post-Menopausal Gender Issues

From Old Farmer's Almanac, 1867:

"The hen will sometimes lay an egg, as every farmer’s boy knows, not larger than a pigeon’s egg, or even smaller. These eggs are often the result of exhausted fecundity, that is, they are produced by very old hens, such hens as have passed their natural period of production. Such hens will often crow like the cock, and they sometimes take on, in part, the plumage of the cock, and practice his alluring fascinations. At one time it was supposed the cock laid these little monstrosities in the shape of pigeons’ eggs.

In a work published in 1774, called Promenade a Bade, we read that a cock was burned alive in the public square of the city, Baden, for having laid an egg of the kind we are speaking of."

Raising Chickens in Brooklyn

I'm almost ready for the next phase of FarmTina: Raising chickens in my backyard.

Keeping chickens in the city is becoming pretty popular, and I actually think it's less work than having a pet dog! Chickens don't mind the cold in winter, and as long as they have protection from snow and rain, they'll lay eggs for me all year round. I would raise them as pets who supply eggs, not for their meat.

The chicken eggs that we eat are unfertilized eggs that the hen's body is getting rid of, usually laying an egg once every 24-27 hours. As long as there is no cock around to fertilize the hen's eggs, there is no chance that the egg could contain a fetus. When she lays these unfertilized eggs, the hen doesn't mind that we steal them out of her nest. In fact, if you don't regularly remove the eggs, the hen could become broody: this means she is confused into thinking the eggs in her nest contain babies. She'll sit on them and protect them for up to 3 weeks, the time in which it usually takes a fertilized egg to hatch.

The first step would be to create a home for my chickens. They need an enclosed space in which to safely lay their eggs and sleep, and they also need an outdoor area for exercise. I am obsessed with the Omlet Eglu chicken coop, pictured left. It's made for people who want to raise 2-4 chickens in a small space. I swear, the fact that it comes in pink has nothing to do with why I want it. Really. I promise. It's true. Really.

The next step is to pick out my chickens! It is illegal in New York City to keep roosters (think of the 5am cock-a-doodle-doos!) but I can legally keep an unlimited number of hens as long as I don't sell their eggs or meat. The breed I choose will affect the quantity and color of the eggs (white? brown?), their personality (calm? social?), and the conditions in which they thrive (wet weather? running space?). Because of my limitations on space and available manpower, I'll probably keep 2 chickens. I'll need to clip their wings so they don't fly away!