Boarding Woes...New Twist Not For the Faint of Heart

Right? Sea bugs!!

That was my second point in my post under not yucking someone elses yum.

We raised free range guinea pigs when I was a kid.(way before free range was hip :wink: ) We just let them run around the barn. We had two females and a male. After all of the neighhood kids got a guinea pig, another litter had been born. My mom was talking to someone she knew at the super market waiting for her deli meat to get sliced and she mentioned that she had some baby ā€œpigsā€ that need a new home. Well the butcher over heard her and purchased the ā€˜pigs’, we kept him in ā€˜pigs’ for years.

3 Likes

@colorfan, Not at all! That was just me saying my piece on the whole subject, definitely not pointed at you. I just wanted to clarify that the poster you were replying to was not the OP.

2 Likes

I have a now-retired but very prosperous farrier friend who was absolutely broke when he started out. Shot the barn pigeons and took them home.

6 Likes

I will admit I had a visceral reaction to the OPs story when it started out with the barn’s board being overpriced. The impression of the OP as a Karen was not disabused as I continued to read the post.

The real question the OP asked, regardless of the rest of the malarkey contained therein, was should she move? The answer that I have is absolutely. You must immediately buy a barn, manage it, and hire workers. Of course, they must be of a certain class, race, country of origin and social status. Then you will be happy.

Otherwise, you might be subjected to things you don’t understand and are shocked and appalled by. And you will continue to move facilities until one day, no one will have you. Better to pre-empt that and just do the work yourself.

This is only partially tongue-in-cheek.

On a more serious note, I’m an animal lover. But I’ve also processed animals myself. After growing up as an ethical vegetarian I came to the conclusion that there was no way to actually avoid injuring animals in the course of feeding myself, and that I was being irrational by saying that some animals were ok and others not. Then I decided that if I were going to eat meat, I ought to be able to raise and butcher it. So I did. And I discovered that while it wasn’t fun, it was a thing I could do, and then have knowledge that the animal was raised, lived, and died humanely.

Different cultures do have less of an ā€œickā€ factor about butchering their own food or being close to food that is ā€œin it’s natural stateā€. For some cultures it’s because of a level of poverty, for others, like the French, it’s a way of appreciating the food. Sounds like a cultural collision and the OP might want to reassess her position in light of that. That’s of course, making an assumption that the goat was going to be used as part of a different culture’s celebration (farm workers as opposed to grooms…whatever the frick that means).

28 Likes

Love love the bench!

THEN what, @yaya? THEN WHAT?

1 Like

Unless they hatch at a facility with professional sexers (& they are not 100% accurate) most live long enough to get sold as Straight Run chicks. Leaving the buyer to deal with those that are roosters.
IME, until the chicks are fully feathered & around 2-3mos, it’s near impossible to sex them accurately.
I look for a more upright stance & comb development & even then… :chicken:can = :rooster:

3 Likes

No, I don’t condone the theft of said goat or any other, I pointed out there are people that exist who would and the OP was NOT one of those. She obviously cares about animals and is not an extremist. I specifically said I would offer to buy the goat so not certain where that idea originated from.

The point of my post was just to offer the prospective of saving a goat to prolong it’s life. That some people come at it from that point of view. It’s not about supposed presumed privilege, the true privilege is the goat keeps it’s life, if you ask the goat, I’d imagine.

No need to find offense where there is none offered.

It’s definitely an interesting thread, and seems little to do with concern for the goat, which is where it all started.

6 Likes

Not exactly.
OP came here clutching her pearls because the idea that a goat would become a meal made her question if she should move to another barn.
Would you move your horse for that reason if care otherwise was decent?

10 Likes

What bothers me about this attitude is more concern for the goat than the human beings who intended to consume the goat.

27 Likes

Right, I am just saying concern about the goat started the question in the first place. After the goat was found, questions followed.

I would have to be in her shoes honestly, to make that decision. Just because if it was a common practice at the farm there would be a fairly good chance my goat numbers would increase. :laughing:

4 Likes

I find it odd, that is the focus. I am an unapologetic kook, and have compassion for all involved. That being said, this goat is not their last meal. This meal however would be an endpoint for the goat.

Perhaps that’s why my compassion weighs a little more toward the thing losing it’s life.

What is the harm in offering to buy, which wasn’t even a thing in this situation? I just threw that in as a step further I probably would have gone. Hypothetically if they had not wanted to sell, it’s, ā€œsorry goat, I tried.ā€

6 Likes

Also, just in general, having compassion for something losing it’s life shouldn’t be bad thing. Really.

It’s not an attitude.

I promise I would have the same compassion for the people if the goat was going to eat them. :laughing:

6 Likes

If the goat is their holiday meal, then they’re just going to have to go get another goat if you buy it.

7 Likes

Definitely true. I better like that goat. :laughing:

1 Like

Anyone for a game of Mad Libs?

4 Likes

Animals eat other animals. It is the way of the world. Compassion is fine, and I love animals and I can’t watch or participate in them being killed, but a humane dispatch of an animal for other animals (humans) to eat is not a reason for losing sleep or an overly emotional response.

Do you love dogs? Cats?

They eat animals.

I just don’t understand the disconnect.

8 Likes

Yes, animals eat other animals and humans if they can.
Some times they even bite more than they may be able to eat? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

5 Likes

Commercial laying hens are sexed at hatch. Day old chicks sold by commercial hatcheries to retail customers or feedstores are primarily – not exclusively – sold sexed. Some people want straight run. If you hatch your own … well, that’s where an experienced eye is useful. But mostly you can’t tell for sure for before they start feathering out.