How to Slaughter an Animal When it’s Difficult

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***WARNING*** This post is about slaughtering and butchering animals. It is written in a way that is respectful, but it describes the killing of animals. This is a common part of homestead life. If you are offended by this, I recommend skipping this post.

For me, one of the most difficult parts of homesteading has been slaughtering and butchering our own animals. I was certainly not raised as a vegan, or vegetarian. In fact I grew up eating meat quite often. However, I was taught to value life. Hunting was very common and normal in the culture I grew up in. My grandparents and some of my aunts/uncles hunted for deer and elk and used venison for a large portion of their food source. However, I didn’t ever have that experience growing up. With the exception of fish, I had never killed an animal until I was an adult. At this point in my life I have I have both hunted, and slaughtered many animals for food. Now we are veggie lovers in my family and don’t eat a ton of meat, but we do value good quality meat. Also, I can’t forget bone broth! We LOVE having bone broth on hand! Meat can be a very valuable food source and we don’t ignore that.
Now that I have I have slaughtered and butchered my own animals for several years, I would like to share some thoughts and experience to hopefully help others who may struggle with this. First of all, it has become easier, but not easy. I’m glad for that! I hope that I never become totally desensitized to it! However, I have learned how to deal with it in respectful ways that make it more meaningful. I believe that the closer you are to the food source, the more you appreciate it. The more you appreciate it, the less likely you are going to waste it! We try to use as much of the animal as possible. Yes it’s hard, but it is worth it!

This is my absolute favorite knife for any kind of meat or game processing! My dad gave me this for Christmas many years ago before I was even married and I still use it. I’m kind of protective of it. Nobody else gets to use it! It isn’t as sharp as it was on day one but considering how long I’ve used it, and what I’ve cut with it, I’m very impressed! It’s made by Victorinox, the Swiss company that developed the Swiss Army Knife. Here is a link if you want to check it out!

First of all, I do not shame anyone who chooses not to eat meat. That’s fine with me, but if you do eat meat, you need to always keep in mind that these animals are a food source. Animals will die for your meat no matter where it comes from. You might as well give those animals a good life because they don’t usually get a good life in commercial meat production! In this way, you can give the animals you kill much more respect because you honor them while they are alive. If you raise an animal with this in mind, you can love them in a way that respects their life but allows you to keep in mind what their purpose is. Most people will give you the advice to not name your animals unless you name them things like “stew”, “paddy”, “burger”, “steak”, etc.. That’s fine, but I think it’s just a way of reminding you what their purpose is. For me, it’s more of a mindset.

Next, I always thank the animal for its life before I kill it. I know many Native American cultures do this as well. It helps me to know that I have expressed my gratitude and it reminds me of what the purpose of the animal is. In addition, I always say a little prayer and thank God for providing the animal and ask to bless its soul. I think that expressing gratitude helps us to keep a good attitude and keeps us aligned in love.

The last piece of advice is probably the most important. I have found that sometimes in life there are unavoidable paradoxes. One of them is that in order to kill an animal with the most love, you have to do it with a measure of ruthlessness. There can be no hesitation, no softness, no avoidance, and with 100% commitment. This commitment has to happen before you even get to this point. The closer you are to the animal, the stronger this commitment has to be. It’s easier to pull a trigger than to use a knife. If you hesitate at all, you won’t get a good clean kill and the animal will experience more fear and suffering. In order to make that commitment and get a good clean kill, you sometimes have to release a certain amount of controlled fury. Not hatred or anger, or lust for power/thrill. No, it has to be a merciful kind of fury. It’s part of an inner masculine strength that has to be summoned. (Please note that when I say masculine, I don’t mean that only men can do this. I think it’s easier for men, but women can do this as well. It’s just more of a masculine instinct). The following experience helps to illustrate this:

We raised meat rabbits for a few years. Rabbits are a great meat animal, especially for the urban homesteader. They are quiet, don’t require a lot of infrastructure, they grow very quickly, and reproduce like...well, like rabbits! There are some downsides to rabbits and one of them is that they like to dig, burrow, and chew. After keeping our rabbits in raised hutches for a while, we decided we wanted to give them a more natural life and tried a “colony” style of raising rabbits which is more like a pen. We buried wire in the ground to keep them from burrowing too much, however, I failed to get the right kind of wire and it eventually rusted and the rabbits chewed through it. They only made burrows and they stayed in the pen so it wasn’t much of an issue at first. Then one day a feral rabbit showed up. I don’t know where he came from, but it wasn’t a wild rabbit. It was an escapee from someone else around town! He managed do dig under the pen, and up into one of the burrows. He then mated with every single female in the pen and before long we had more rabbits than we knew what to do with! To make matters worse, they were starting to get out and terrorize the neighborhood! It was a time in my life where I was very busy with my shoe business and I didn’t have a lot of time or energy to deal with it. Also, at that time, I had several kids who had decided that they wouldn’t eat rabbit anymore so we had an over-abundance of rabbit in the freezer already. I just needed to be done with rabbits! At least for a time. However, I had a bunch of rabbits on my hands that I needed to get rid of. We were also going through a bit of a lean time financially. I sat down and tried to think of a good solution. I came up with the idea of teaching a rabbit butchering class. I would charge a small fee, have people come over on a Saturday morning, and I would give them a rabbit that they would kill, skin, and dress then take the meat home. I’d provide everything else and coach them through it. It was a big win! I was able to help others, earn a little money, and eliminate our rabbits that had started to get out of control!

It went over really well. I taught them multiple different methods of killing the rabbits. Personally, I think rabbits are the most difficult animal to kill because they are so dang cute! They also can scratch and often they will try to escape right when you’re about to make the kill. There are several ways to make a humane kill including severing the spinal cord. There is the “broomstick method” where you put the stick across the back of the neck, and pull its legs. A better cleaner option is an implement like this one that bolts to a wall. Honestly, I’ve tried all of these and my favorite is just a club to the back of the head although, I highly recommend the hooks that bolt to a wall to make the skinning and dressing easier. Again, all these methods require that measured fury with zero hesitation. One one of the people taking the class was a man and his teenage son. The son was interested but was having a really hard time committing to make the kill. It took him a long time to work up to it. I offered to do it for him, but to his credit, he really wanted to overcome his fear. His father was very good about not pressuring him one way or the other. In the end, he chose the club method. At the last second, he closed his eyes and his blow was not fully accurate. The rabbit jumped a little and then went limp. We all assumed it was dead. He had a pretty big adrenaline rush and had to take a minute to calm down. We gave him the space to do that and when he was ready he went to hang the rabbit by it’s hind legs to skin and dress it. As he held it up, the rabbit, suddenly came to life and started thrashing around trying to escape. Instead of killing it, he had just knocked it unconscious. I told him it needed to be killed immediately. This was too much for the poor kid and he couldn’t do it. I didn’t want the rabbit to suffer any longer and I didn’t want this kid to suffer any longer so I took over and finished the job quickly. He was ok in the end. Honestly, I can totally understand how he felt. I don’t think I couldn’t have done it at his age! However, because of that hesitation and soft approach, it caused both him and the rabbit more pain.

If the thought of killing an animal is uncomfortable to you, congratulations! You aren’t a psychopath! That’s a good thing. Just remember the purpose of the animal, give thanks for it, and when the time comes, make a commitment and follow through with just enough force to prevent unnecessary suffering. You can do it!