Re: RC: Re: Was Horse slaughter, now something else .....

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 03/16/2000 6:17:46 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
Kenzie_Kelly@spc.com writes:

<< but I don't eat a lot of chicken (not because of the
      trucks, to be honest, but have you ever *seen* a chicken slaughter
      house?   >>

Isn't it interesting how different people are influenced by different 
situations?  I grew up on a chicken farm.  At age 8, I was the family 
"chicken plucker".  My father would behead and scald the chicken, I would 
pluck and eviscerate it, my mother would cook it, and we all would have it 
for dinner.  Chicken is still one of my all-time favorite foods, but only the 
dark meat, please!  White meat is too dry and lacks flavor.  My husband 
prefers it, so it all evens out.
Also, our three daughters all raised fryers for 4-H projects. Then, when 
chicken processing plants disappeared from our county, we took over the job 
ourselves.  Once a year, our family, neighbors, and friends would have a 
chicken processing day.  (I was the only one who would do the eviscerating.  
I'm not particularly squeemish).  We did about 125-150 birds, the total 
production of the 4-H project at that time.  The girls sold the meat to 
various customers, who could hardly wait until the next year's batch matured. 
 That was GOOD chicken!  After the girls grew up and went away to college, I 
continued to raise a batch of chickens for meat, but when the cost of the 
baby chicks and the feed ran to more than the cost of chicken in the market, 
I quit. That cost didn't take into consideration the loss of young birds as 
they grew up (chickens die easily), the value of the shavings (even though 
they were a by-product of our business), the amount of hard work I put into 
them, and the time it took all of us, neighbors and friends to process them.  
Ahh .... life on the farm.

Barbara