This isn’t a fun post but it’s an important one and it’s not about methods of killing – there are plenty of youtube videos for that.
Four years ago I never thought I’d ever be in the position to kill something. Especially animals I have named and loved.
My ideal farm life was very Disney-like. Nothing gets ill, nothing gets hurt or killed by a predator and everything wears pink. There’s a lot of Disney aspects to my farm life but there are also devastating ones.
While I researched a lot about every aspect of this life I could think of, one thing I didn’t consider was how to kill.
When you live this life solo with no husband to do the dirty work it falls on you to be prepared. Whatever you think about this the time will come when something you love is sick or injured and you’re faced with the decision of letting them have a lingering, painful death or having mercy and ending their suffering. Or you could be face to face with an active predator slaughtering your babies and need to act quickly. It’s a horrifying scenario.
I use a gun for most predators. I trap and release what I can but don’t fool yourself, you will have to kill something eventually, even with a guard dog. Anything sick that I think I have a chance of saving I will do all I can for it. Be aware it isn’t easy finding a vet nearby who will take some farm animals.
It didn’t take long after moving here to have my first predators show up. I didn’t have guns, I didn’t have an axe or machete or anything sharp. I saw the attack coming and after scrambling for an old rusty shovel I beat the shit out of it for 30 minutes – crying the entire time – until it finally stopped moving. I was miserable and shaken over what I had done and the predator was something I didn’t love and care for and it was a direct threat to my babies.
The worst ones are when you’ve cared dearly for an animal and have to end its misery. I had a chick with a partially exposed brain. It was a birth defect from the hatchery and instead of telling me how to deal with the chick they simply gave me a refund and a ‘sorry for your loss’ email.* But the chick wasn’t dead, he was far from it. He was active and sweet and in my inexperience I hoped I could somehow nurse him through it.
He lived almost 5 months until the seizures started. At first they lasted a couple minutes and didn’t seem to bother him. Then the day came when he seized for a few hours and I knew I had to help him.
He seized so hard I couldn’t get to his neck easily, making the situation worse. Finally, when it was over I sobbed for a long time holding my sweet, limp boy. At least his misery was over.
The process is simple:
- Have a plan and proper weapons for whatever predators you may have to deal with.
- Make sure weapons/tools are sharpened or easily loaded.
- COMMIT to the action and follow threw as quickly as possible being careful not to hurt yourself in the process.
- Forgive yourself.
The commit part is the hardest. Even big hunters have a hard time ending a life by their own hands, directly.
About weapons:
When buying sharp objects I learned the hard way (repeatedly) they do not come sharpened. I’m sure there’s a great reason for not selling sharp items but when you have no way to sharpen them and are unaware they are blunt it really sucks.
I’ve purchased a machete, axe and sickle and none of the damn things were sharpened. So learn from my stupidity and make sure you don’t make things worse for the animal with ill-prepared tools. On that note, for small to standard chicken-sized poultry, I recommend using a sharp pocket knife that fits your hand. This allows for more control than the machete or axe.
I know this is the last thing anyone wants to think about but save yourself the added stress and heartache by considering the scenarios and how you would handle them.
*The chick had a condition called Exencephaly. I wrote a post about it here. Knowing what I know now I would have culled the chick right away. Most people recommend using very sharp scissors to remove its head quickly.