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

I have the same questions. It’s not like farmers who raise pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep suddenly decide to slaughter all the horses and dogs one day.

I disagree that they usually do what’s best/easiest/cheapest for them. I think people who I have known that raise their own animals for meat have a greater appreciation for those animals and treat them with care because they depend on them.

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What about the barncats? :scream_cat:
Factoid:
During the Depression, butchers selling rabbit had to leave the head and/or feet on. Assured buyers it was not cat.
Relayed to me by MIL, who lived through it.

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Roasting a goat is pretty standard Hispanic culture.

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& Jamaican.
Gal I worked with married a Jamaican.
Another Jamaican coworker made a curried goat for the wedding dinner.
Yum! :yum:

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I spent 15 -ish years being a groom that had housing provided. Sometimes the accomidations were… not so nice and I will leave it at that.

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OP I know how you feel. Once I went to buy some hay from a seller that was recommended by a friend. I drove around to a barn across the property. I heard a goat bleating and saw some people in a SUV that had come to pick the goat up. I wondered " How are they going to fit that goat in their SUV?" Then it dawned on me that they weren’t picking up a live goat and I was standing there next to where they were fixing to slaughter the goat. Yes I had a real problem with that, told them I had enough hay and left quickly. I don’t care that people do that. I didn’t want to witness it. P.S. the hay was crappy so Iam glad I left when I did.

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Yup @2DogsFarm!

I read a stat once that goat is the most commonly eaten meat in the world when considering the number of cultures who eat it. Just not ours.

I understand the idea of an animal being slaughtered on premise is upsetting when most of us only ever see meat in the grocery store. But this is a really common cultural practice that is not inherently cruel or dangerous on its own. Quite frankly, in most circumstances, that goat has it a lot better than any meat most of us have eaten in our lifetime.

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well… I absolutely disagree with your mindset. I can only assume you are a vegetarian? If not, how do you justify your statement? All cattle farmers view all animals as “livestock”? etc etc? What about hunters? and Fishermen? Same opinion?

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good lord the sheer volume of ASSumptions being made here.
And as for me, I’d ask if I could join the party.
Love me some goat.

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This is so true. A much better life while living. A death they never know is coming.

A short good life is a good life.

It is not that way at all for commercially-slaughtered animals. It’s better for the animals than it used to be, but their last hours, sometimes even their last days, are traumatic.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to be near a slaughter process. I accept slaughter, but I don’t want to be there either. I can manage a lot of other parts of life’s messiness ok, though.

I suspect that the BO who was surprised will make sure that the workers have another less obvious option for their meat processing in the future.

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We don’t actually know that they were going to slaughter the goat there. We only know that the goat was in a shed there and was going to be slaughtered at some point.

Maybe the goat was going to be transported from the shed to someone with the facilities to properly slaughter a goat, and was only spending the day in the shed as a temporary holding place.

Or, maybe one of the guys that works there has extensive goat slaughtering experience…

So many things have to be guessed here.

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I mean, from what I understand, OP saw goat tied in a lean-to shed. Went to BO, asking what the goat was doing there. BO, said, “I don’t know!” OP and BO retied goat, fed and watered. BO went to barn workers, said, “hey, what’s this goat doing here!” Barn workers said they had obtained goat for main meal, and were going to slaughter and cook it. BO said, “hey, don’t do that again, not cool to bring goat onto property without my permission and slaughter it here or in your accommodations in future.”

Re: the OP’s original question, I don’t see how anything about this suggests a need to leave the barn. The BO doesn’t find it acceptable to have random animals she hasn’t approved of on property (as she shouldn’t, since even if someone brings a dog, they should clear it with her first). The barn workers didn’t understand it was a big issue, perhaps because they just thought it was a farm animal.

There’s nothing in the scenario to suggest that the workers are going to be doing this every day. Even on a practical basis, they aren’t keeping livestock, and I just don’t see how killing your food every single day is going to jive with a busy barn worker’s schedule at a horse barn. Unless someone thinks that anyone capable of killing an animal shouldn’t touch their horse, this situation seems more “unfortunate one-off cultural miscommunication.” I mean, if they keep bringing random farm animals on the regular, maybe then it might be an issue, but it doesn’t sound like the BO was sleeping on this. Honestly, I’ve been at barns that didn’t manage their live farm animals well and it became a nuisance during lessons, and the BO didn’t care, and that was a dealbreaker.

Like I said, I am a “mostly pescatarian” and often totally vegan/vegetarian in my eating habits, but if I were to refuse to be around people who feel comfortable eating whole, roasted animals, that would quite literally cut me off from my father and everyone on that side of the family. It’s not some weird, strange, savage custom. I’m not a fan, but I think given all barn workers put up with, it’s important to look at things through their perspective.

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I feel like, and just my small opinion, but everyone is kinda ganging up on OP. Some of us were city people at one point, myself included, and had to learn about the ways of country and farm life, the way other cultures live, and sometimes we were shocked over it and had to vent or be upset or shocked at first until people explained it more to feel educated and comfortable about the situation.

@SpicyPRE I get why it freaked you out and a smaller animal being processed can easily pull at our heartstrings. I would ask you, ever so kindly, these few things:

  1. Are the workers from another country that could easily have different cultural holiday traditions? If so well, I tell people merry christmas, happy quanza, feliz navidad, whatever you celebrate in December I hope you enjoy it and stay safe, happy and healthy! To each their own is all I am saying, if it is important to them and done with respect to everyone and every animal involved even if they are eating said animal, then that is just how they roll.

  2. How upset was the BO and were they definetly planning on slaughtering onsite? If not, well yes a small goat being eaten is sad, but it is their culture and maybe the goat was considered organically raised and that was why they decided to go the route they did with purchasing a live goat vs the store.

If they were going to slaughter onsite, theyay not have been aware if it is illegal, or if it is a quick procedure, well we all sometimes bend rules, we are not supposed to burn past a certain date here, but everyone does. Myself included sometimes. I do it safely with the hose on and near the fire ready to go if needed. Maybe they are well versed in the cleanup and all that, just something to consider. I hate to say it but a smaller animal is easier to slaughter, clean up remnant ‘things’ and do a roast, kinda like a hawaiian feast. I would try to get more info from BO if it will help settle your mind. If never hurts to ask respectfully and nicely, like I am trying to make sure I am doing here with you.

  1. Now knowing that removing the animal from food and water before slaughtering is common practice for the health aspect of the humans eating it, do you feel a little bit better about why it was where it was? Yes it does suck for the animal no matter what, but at least they were following a safe slaughter procedure. I understand you giving it food and water before you and BO were aware of what was going on though.

The only part that really would stress me, after going calmly thru above questions and getting hopefully good answers about the process…would be that BO was unaware. Granted if slaughter and processing was happening offsite and they had just bought it maybe BO is not super hands on with them and they did not see it as an issue. It could all boil down to a lack of communication or simple ignorance, that a civil conversation between workers and BO could resolve.

“Hey, this goat was bleating and one of my boarders was worried since we normally don’t have or hear goats here. She found it and was pretty upset and shaken, most of us are not used to goat slaughter for a holiday, let alone seeing the animal that is being slaughtered. If you want to do a goat roast for the holidays I can respect that, but I ask that the animal is not housed here before, or at least let me know, and we can plan accordingly so this doesn’t happen again.”

The BO honestly may not be worried about how the slaughter happens if the property if large and unused parts are properly disposed of. I would worry about that with the smallest grain of salt, I am sure they at the least wash their hands after that is completed. If they get sick from the meat, at least it’s not you :grin:!

We can still bury our horses at our farms here in TN, I have 2 next to each other on my 3 acres. Looking at the big picture, burying unused parts of a goat on a farm is much smaller scale to what I have in my ground. It would be like burying a large dog.

I hope after reading this and taking some of the cultural points into consideration you feel more at ease with the whole situation. It sounds like the whole thing was not handled the best by the workers and again they may have just not thought one of the boarder girls would hear the goat and get worried and it turn into an issue. This may be a live and learn to communicate with BO more moment for them. And I ever so gently and kindly say a live and let live moment in your case after understanding the circumstances better.

I again understand why you went looking for what you thought was a stuck or abandoned creature and I commend you for caring enough to take the time and for being smart enough to grab BO to look around the property with you. Best holiday wishes from me to you!!!

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I think I would file this under “none of your business.” Unless they were planning to slaughter the goat in the barn or in an area frequented by boarders, I don’t see how it impacts you at all. If you hadn’t heard the goat and gone looking for it, you would never have known it was there and likely would never have known it was slaughtered and eaten.

It doesn’t sound like animal slaughter is a regular occurrence at this barn, so it kind of seems like a non issue for you as a boarder. If the BO has issues with their staff doing it, they will take that up with the staff.

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Thank you!

My grandparents called them “roof rabbits” :flushed:

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I think it was more of an “I hear an animal crying, did someone dump one at the farm?” And then it just kinda went from there, I mean if I heard a mewling at any of my boarding barns in the past, I would wonder if a kitten or puppy was abandoned or hurt and want to find it. Not to be nosy, just to help it if it needed rescueing or anything like that. I can see where everything was a little awry and ripe with confusion since BO did not know it was there, and encouraged and helped her find where the noises were coming from. It did not sound like BO thought she should mind her own beeswax either, more like she brought to light something they did not know was occuring on their property and then needed more answers about everything. The BO couldve said ok here is the goat, thanks bye, but had enough decency (since she did put effort and caring into worrying about a noise from a creature that normally was not heard on the farm and finding said creature and showing it compassion, which the BO helped her do as well.) to find out exactly why there was a goat there and let her know as Paul Harvey used to say “the rest of the story”…or as much as BO was able to find out at the time. Considering it is BO’s land, I am sure they were appreciative of the info.

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100% accurate. Thank you

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I totally get that and would have gone looking for the source of the sound myself, if there was any chance an animal needed help.

My point was it was only by chance OP heard the goat. Otherwise she likely never would have known of its existence and imminent demise. Lots of things happen on farms that boarders don’t see, hear, or know about. If those things are legal and don’t affect them or their horses, it shouldn’t be any of their concern.

If animal slaughter was a regular occurrence at this farm and OP has issues with witnessing it, that’s one thing. But I’m getting the sense this was a bit of a fluke scenario so don’t understand the angst about continuing to board there.

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Above your quote is the OP. It says nothing about finding the barn owner first before feeding and watering someone else’s animal.

The OP was out of bounds to take it upon themselves to interfere with an animal before asking about the situation. I doubt the goat would be slaughtered on premises and I feel for the barn employees whose plans have been interfered with by someone who seems clueless about the prevalence of goat as food in many cultures, and also clueless about leaving other peoples animals alone before asking about the situation.

I think the OP should leave. Good barn employees are scarce and should be respected.

It really seems as if the OP is freaking out because they didn’t know that people eat goats.

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