Church youth group's killing party.

[Reciprocity]

I find this unbelievable. I was sent this link about a Church youth group's killing party. Warning if you open the link, it show teenagers killing chickens with swords and then posing with the dead chicken for pictures. I wonder if the parents know what this youth director is doing with their children?

From the site.

Results from the Day of Death
Today was a day of bloodshed around here. We butchered chickens. Yeah, it was a little warm out, but they needed to go. I had some teens from church come over that wanted to participate in the day of death. Sort of an impromptu "youth event".

http://www.themodernhomestead.com/blog/

[sui generis]

1. well, that's mostly what they do on the farm

usually not with as much ceremony (or weird cutlery) - but it's reality in rural America.

It's also reality millions of times a day for the chickens that end up in the supermarket and at McDonalds - and not much different. I didn't read every last word but didn't see that they were being "inhumane" (PETA objections aside) other than butchering them.

[Reciprocity]

2. So

you don't find youths with smiling faces killing chickens with swords just a little strange?

[sui generis]

3. it is strange but I also find grannies wringing

chickens necks with their bare hands strange, and it's what my American grandmother did when she was raising her kids.

Any way you kill a critter for food is strange when you get right down to it.

They're not smiling because they're evil - it's just part of the culture, and they're boys. Nobody's going to break down and express anything that could be construed as weakness - and anyway, they're preparing the chicken for food, not sport killing.

I personally don't like their method and wouldn't condone it - I think we should have more respect for the life we take to feed ourselves, but it is what it is and it's not as bad as the KFC people drop kicking, wall banging, and double-foot stomping live chickens as caught on that PETA video last year.

[eagler]

4. A little strange maybe but maybe they'll be offered a job by

KFC.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. Why consider it strange?! Why the sanctomonious classist elitism

against people who actually kill their own food instead of the dishonorable route of buying it sterilized for them at the grocery store?

Jesus fucking christ.

[Reciprocity]

28. The only

"sanctomonious classist elitism" I see going on here is yours. I can assure you that I have never been to a church youth activity that included killing chickens with swords. Silly me for finding that strange. Also I never said I had anything against folks butchering food for the table. Those were your words not mine.

[Modem Butterfly]

5. I grew up in rural America

That's really weird.

[China_cat]

16. So did I

and killing a chicken never elicited smiles...what it got was an inner 'oh shit' for the work of having to pluck the damned thing, scald it, pluck some more, singe it, pluck some more and then still have to listen to your stepfather complain because you missed a pinfeather.

[Modem Butterfly]

18. The pin feathers are the worst.

[sui generis]

19. see there, a woman's work is never done

O8)

:popcorn:

:evilgrin:

:hide:

[Burma Jones]

24. And it's even more fun when it's 95 degrees outside.......n/t

[enigami]

36. killing chickins is hard work

[China_cat]

38. Nah...killing them's the easy part

It's what comes after that's hard. Now, killing pigs? THAT'S hard work. Miss with the sledge hammer and you end up with a broken leg.

[enigami]

39. I know just kidding

gawddont you just hate that smell of scalding feathers

[xmas74]

46. I once worked in a slaughterhouse.

We didn't use a sledge hammer. We would string them up and slit their throats instead (but I've watched friends use a sledge hammer for the big hog roast parties that we used to have).

[xmas74]

45. It all sucks

but pinfeathers are the absolute worst part.

I like being able to go to the store and buying it ready to go but sometimes I wonder if I am wrong for not killing it myself. Seems more respectful if I know where it came from than buying a pack of chicken breasts at the store.

[swag]

49. that's mostly what they do on the farm when the vibrating mules get a rest

[sui generis]

59. clever. so clever even I didn't get it.

that's pretty darn clever.

anyway, vibrating mules aside, killing chickens is what they do, usually by beheading them.

Odd choice of cutlery, I admit, and I wouldn't let my kid go do that, but they weren't being any more inhumane than someone using a stump and hatchet.

Vibrating mules, really. (cue music from Deliverance)

:hi:

[swag]

60. I don't make this shit up - here's the reference target:

http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/06/bizarre_sex_habits_of_the_extreme_rightwing.php

At first, Horsley laughed and said, "Just because it's printed in the media, people jump to believe it."

"Is it true?" Colmes asked.

"Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I..."

AC: "You had sex with animals?"

NH: "Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."

AC: "I'm not so sure that that is so."

NH: "You didn't grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?"

AC: "Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?"

NH: It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality... Welcome to domestic life on the farm..."

Colmes said he thought there were a lot of people in the audience who grew up on farms, are living on farms now, raising kids on farms and "and I don't think they are dating Elsie right now. You know what I'm saying?"

Horsley said, "You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually. You're naive. You know better than that... If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates you might in fact have sex with it."

[GiovanniC]

61. What. The. Fuck.

Meanwhile, another famous Georgia face:





"I had sex with vibrating mules!
We called it a 'duel' back then though!"

[sui generis]

63. ha ha! I forgot about the vibrating part there - /nt

[RPM]

6. we should all have to kill what we eat - at least once.

greater appreciation of what the process involves and what commercial food distribution spares us.

[RebelOne]

37. Well, in that case, I will only have to kill vegetables.

[sui generis]

41. plus all the field critters you had to displace to grow your vegetables

and the house and city you live in, the roads you traverse, the schools where you learn, and the place that you work.

All the mines that were dug to pull up coal and iron and other minerals you use in your daily life, all the accidental chemical releases from the plastics manufacturing plant, etc. etc., the places that built the car and train and plane and bicycle you use to get around, the barn cats and field mice threshed in the wheat and corn you had in your wheaties and cornflakes this morning.

You are not any more innocent of killing than any of the rest of us I don't think. Just because your life benefit didn't come from a hamburger doesn't make us carnivores more guilty.

[Kenneth ken]

53. if you don't feel guilty

why are you attacking?

RPM posted that we should all have to kill what we eat at least once. Rebelone said if that were true she would only have to kill vegetables. She didn't say she was better or more superior for that; just that killing her food at least once wouldn't require her to kill an animal.

You post a lot of things that don't really have anything to do with the idea of directly killing what one eats.

I'm a vegan largely because I don't think I could kill an animal and then eat it. I know people who can and do; I don't feel superior to them. I don't feel superior to you. I'm just asking why you feel the need to attack rebelone for her comment.

:hi:

[sui generis]

57. sorry, not attacking

sometimes merely speaking one's mind can be construed to be attacking

I have to assume that we all have some sense of self worth enough to have an adult conversation without taking everything as an attack or an assault. That was not an attack either - just a statement that I can't be responsible for everyone's reaction all the time. Trust that I'm not evil, please. My apologies if I hurt anyone.

These are my opinions, which I of course hold in the highest regard, and I am unanimous in this. }(

Displacing an animal from their native territory is largely the same as killing an animal - if the idea is to do no harm to animals then I don't think that the vegan philosophy is much better in its particulars. Scavengers become prey, predators get shot for wandering in human neighborhoods when they have no place left to wander. Thousands of critters live and die in each farmer's field, and thousands more are chased out or mowed over when the combines come.

The truth is in my perfect world we wouldn't exploit animals for anything and we would just use matter replicators to generate our food. The reality is, we have a biology that is optimal on a balanced, moderate, omniverous diet and the only way to do that is to balance our human sensitivity against our survival requirements without giving up either.

[Rabrrrrrr]

64. We were having a very good discussion on this the other day

before the thread got locked for no reason. It was actually a vegetarian/meateater discussion that WASN'T flaming, but was reasoned and good.

Raising the very issues you raise here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3595109

[Kenneth ken]

68. I didn't think you were evil

I had been reading through the thread, and your post seemed to me to come out of no where, relative to your other posts on the thread.

As a generalization, I would say that vegetarians/vegans are more aware of and more opposed to displacing animals, killing animals whose territory humans invade and claim as their own, etc. than does the average person who is an omnivore. The average omnivorous person is part of the reason humans wipe out animal territories; seeing land unoccupied by humans, they call it "vacant" and feel the need to build something on it.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

73. I don't buy that logic.

All of us live in houses or buildings, so everyone should have to lay bricks at least once?

All of us here use computers, so everybody has to assemble one at least once?

[leftofthedial]

7. It gets the good christian youth ready

for the coming "days of death" in the Middle East

[TrogL]

8. Who would name their kids Hosanna and Noah?

[Shell Beau]

58. I like the name Noah and have

considered naming my son that if I have one. There are a lot of Noah's. Noah Wylie for one.

[Dukkha]

75. I have a nephew name Noah

and yes the mother is a fundy wacko who loves * :eyes:

[Book Lover]

9. My only problem is the bullshit sword they used

It doesn't seem to have enough heft to do a quick job, even if it is only a chicken neck to be cut through. My father always used the axe.

on edit: Not to imply that a samurai sword is a bullshit sword per se, just that the one in the pix looks like a cheapie.

[WeRQ4U]

15. Yeah, that part is odd.

I've only known people to use a block and hatchet too. Never a Japanese fighting implement.

[xmas74]

47. I've always seen it done w/ an axe

or bare hands. Either way it's not pretty.

[Burma Jones]

10. Well, I've killed Chickens

not with a samurai sword though..:eyes:

[sui generis]

12. yes but the end result is the same - the head is quickly removed

if they were throwing the birds in the air and hacking at them I'd be considerably more concerned, but it looked like they were just decapitating them, however unconventionally.

[Burma Jones]

14. But then did they sprinkle the blood against the altar

and burn the entrails to create a soothing odour to the LORD????

And if they did, does it mean they'll get better gas mileage?

[sui generis]

17. sounds pretty dang pagan to me

I'll just settle for breaking wind after lunch - it is entirely indistinguishable from burning entrails and the Lord has personally given me a $2.00/gallon price reduction if I promise not to do it any more.

:evilgrin:

[Burma Jones]

21. Pagan my eye, it's straight out of Leviticus.....

Gimme that old time religion........

[Reciprocity]

42. If it does I might try it.

[WeRQ4U]

11. I think it's strange, but only because it's foreign to me.

Considering the fact that in rural america, this type of thing is not only common, but necessary, I will save any sanctimonious rant about how they are sociopathic animal torturers.

On a side note, you do know that by doing this themselves, they, in their own way, are acting against giant Tyson, Inc. type corporations. You realize that by raising, butchering, plucking and preparing their own animals for consumption, they spare those animals from the worse horrors they would live in cramped cages and assembly line killing machines right?

[Modem Butterfly]

13. That's a rather tarnished silver lining...

...but you have a point.

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. So, basically, I assume you've never butchered chickens

I'm curious, though - do you eat chicken? Do you buy at the store?

If so, then you have no right to pass judgment. What these kids are doing is cleaner and more humane than what happens to the chicken that buy already cleaned and all the gross parts done for you in the grocery store.

Jesus Christ, people. THEY'RE BUTCHERING CHICKENS FOR FOOD! They're not out on some killing glee spree.

Fuck all bunch of fucking nonsense and urban elitism.

Goddamn, I'm angry.

[Burma Jones]

22. Hear Hear

Still, the samauri sword makes it a little bizarre....

[WeRQ4U]

26. X 11nty Billion

And I agree, perhpas a hatchet would be a less conspicuous tool.

[SKKY]

23. You know, it's not like it's "Frog Baseball" or anything...

...I mean, at some point, if you're going to grill an animal and cook it, you do have to kill it. If you don't eat meat than this thing might tick you off, but that's how it is on the farm. I eat meat, so this doesn't really bother me too much.

[Reciprocity]

27. It's not butchering chickens

for food that I find strange. That goes on everyday all over the world. It's just I never thought of church youth group having a party with swords and chickens a normal activity.

[Blue-Jay]

29. TEH CHIKKIN ATTACKED ME FIRST!!!11

*bawk!*

[Corey_Baker08]

30. Awww There From Ohio.......And We have a License Plate Number

[Mr. McD]

31. When I lived on the ranch as a youth

We put 2 to 3 hundred chickens in the freezer each year. We had fried chichen 3 or 4 times a week. I have killed and plucked many a bird. It is just food.

[micrometer_50]

32. I was creeped out by that young girl putting her hand

into the hopper on that corn grinder.
you can see that it is being powered by an electric
motor that would not slow down much if her fingers
go too deep into the hopper.

:scared:

[Reciprocity]

51. Which begs the question

Do the parents of these kids know what is going on here?

[mondo joe]

33. Do the chickens have talons?

[youthere]

40. Son,

I didn't understand a word you just said.

[xmas74]

48. Ha!

[youthere]

54. I forgot my checkbook...

I'll have to pay you in change.

[xmas74]

55. You're on a roll!

Don't stop-just keep it up.

First thing to make me laugh all day long

[youthere]

56. I caught you a delicious bass.

[youthere]

34. I think it's terrible.

My husband and I raise and butcher our own chickens. I wouldn't "make it an event", and we sure as hell don't use samuri swords. I think it's good for the kids to see where their food comes from just as other posters have suggested (in fact our kids help with the butchering and don't think twice about it), but it's not an occasion for a party fer' cryin' out loud! It seems as though they are making a mockery out of it and that is just wrong. We don't kill chickens for fun, or sport, or for a youth event..we kill them to feed us through the winter.
I remember hearing a story about a farm boy one time during hog butchering time (back in "the good old days").It goes kind of like: While the adults were getting everything ready the boy was hanging out in the pen throwing rocks and teasing the pig that was to be butchered and spitting on it. The boy's uncle caught him and grabbed him up by the shirt and said in a cold hard voice "If I ever catch you teasing an animal like that again I will whip you until you can't stand. We're trading this animal's life for our own and I won't have you shaming him for it."
I think my stepdad told me that story, but I don't remember if it was something that happened to him or if it was something he heard elsewhere, but I've always remembered it-I just wish I could remember the source.
Just my $0.02.

[Burma Jones]

43. That story is pretty indicative of what I was taught

That you were respectful and treated livestock kindly - then you killed and ate them.

[Reciprocity]

44. Good story.

I think on the whole folks who raise their own livestock have a healthier respect for the food on the table that don't.

[TheMightyFavog]

50. Hmmm...

I seem to remember hearing that story in a News From Lake Wobegon segment on A Prarie Home Companion.

[youthere]

52. you could be right....

My stepdad used to love the Lake Wobegon Stories and would pass along the prairie home companion stories (sometimes as his own).

[enigami]

35. I've butchered a lot of chickens, but

I never thought to use a John Belushi Samurai sword. That is a little weird

[Reciprocity]

62. What BS.

From the site.

"Ronnie and Daniel seem a little TOO HAPPY as they prepare to do the biggest rooster of the day. For those who don't work with teens, please understand they aren't "happy" the chickens are dying but they are enjoying trying something new and being responsible about their food."

You can plainly see that that how much they were enjoying the killing.

[Squatch]

65. Ummm...and?

I think they were having a barbeque, featuring chickens. Gotta kill a chicken to eat it, IMHO.

[Reciprocity]

66. No one is disputing that.

But don't BS me that these kids are not getting off on killing, when the pictures tell a different story.

[Squatch]

67. Nah, I don't think so. Looks like they're having a good time

at a barbeque that happens to feature the butchering of chickens.

1) Are chickens being killed instantly, painlessly? Check.
2) Are they eating said chickens? Check.
3) Are they having fun doing that? Check.
4) Is that wrong? Nope.

[Reciprocity]

69. 1) Are chickens being killed instantly, painlessly?

Instantly and painlessly. Like I said, cut the BS and be a man an own up to what is happening.

[Squatch]

70. Like I said...

They are quickly decapitating chickens for the purpose of eating them, and having a good time doing so. Good on them.

[Reciprocity]

71. I'm not buying that..

Butchering meat for the table is one thing. Smiling for the camera with a sword in your hand while you are doing it, is indicative of something else. Especially at a church function. The last time I saw a beheading with a sword, was Nicholas Berg. Two very different issues. However it was the first thing I though of when I saw the gleeful pleasure in these teens eyes.

[Rabrrrrrr]

72. Nah, you're very wrong

What's wrong with the kids smiling for a picture?

You are really obsessed with the "evil" of butchering chickens as part of a youth group function, which isn't even a youth group function - remember, they guy said he was gonna butcher chicken, and decided to call some of the kids in the youth group.

I'm sure the church did not have on its schedule "Youth will butcher chickens and learn to enjoy and smile about killing living beings".

Jesus, get a grip.

Were you ever in a youth group? I smiled a lot in youth group, even when doing things like dying in summer heat chingling a house for someone, or plunging toilets at a summer camp.

Why this bizarre and obsessive need to villainize these kids for having fun while doing something together? What do you want - all of them to look grim and suitably "morose" while butchering chickens?

For fuck's sake, when I butchered chickens with my family and neighbors, there was always laughter, smiling, jokes, joviality, and a good time. IT'S TIME SPENT WITH OTHER PEOPLE - WHY CAN'T THEY FUCKING ENJOY IT?!?!?!?!

[Reciprocity]

74. Why all the cussing?

If you are using yourself as an example of how well these kids will turn out. I'm not impressed.