This weekend we slaughtered and processed our first chicken ourselves. All the other chickens we raised and slaughtered were done by a professional processor; so this was a first for us. Rather than give some sort of step-by-step guide to doing this (there are tons of websites and videos that do this well) we thought we'd just provide a few thoughts on the process of bringing a chicken to the table.
We should say off the bat that we are not in any way morally opposed to eating animals. We believe that animals are indeed below human beings in value and that human needs can and should be above animal needs. Furthermore, we believe that animals were created to serve humanity; this is particularly the case for domestic animals that are entirely dependent on humans for their survival (as chickens certainly are). Although humans can survive without meat, meat provides unique nutritional components that cannot be reproduced from vegetable sources. This is a need of humans that is superior to an animal's need and life.
This being said, though, we also very strongly believe that humans were created to steward and tend both animal and plant life. That is what husbandmen and farmers do. We therefore have a responsibility to care for animals and when the time comes to slaughter them, do so humanely and with due respect for the life they give, which transfers energy and sustenance to us. No animal life should be taken cavalierly, easily or without pause.
These truths came to the fore when I slaughtered our little bantam rooster. Though I had killed fish before, this was the first animal I had raised and gotten to "know" that then fell under my knife. Not to be morbid, but I very intentionally looked at the rooster's face, into his weird chicken eyes, and deliberately considered that I would close his little eyes for good. If I could only have killed him because I looked away, or did not fully understand my actions, I would not have been appreciating his life correctly and it would have been a cowardly deed on my part.
The Old Testament frequently talks about the power of blood. That it contains the animal's life and that atonement is not possible without the spilling of blood. Often, indeed, the Old Testament sacrificial system seems needlessly bloody and primitive to us. Why does God need dead goats and bulls, after all? He doesn't, of course, but Israel did. I think as modern industrialized consumers of food, we miss the importance of blood and sacrifice in two ways. First, blood is an animal's life. God was deliberately showing the Israelites that their sin meant death. When a human slaughters an animal for food, or when a Levitical priest offered a sacrifice, he releases whatever makes the animal a living thing and turns it into a carcass. Blood is valuable because it represents a life being lost. In Old Testament terms, the life of the sacrifice pays for a renewal of the human's life through atonement from deadly sin.
Secondly, I think we moderns have a very hard time realizing what sacrifice means. Meat means very little to us. It's what comes in plastic at the store or between buns at a restaurant. But for a farmer, for an ancient Israelite, that lamb had been cared for, fed at his expense, and would have provided sustenance for the man's family. By making it a sacrifice to God, he is sacrificing his relationship with the animal, the animal's life, and also willingly giving up the cost of raising the animal and the useful value of the animal to God, thereby acknowledging that God is the source of both life and sustenance.
I valued our little rooster. I was moved when I slaughtered it. The sight of living blood brings the reality of meat into focus. Will I stop eating meat? No; I will value it more. From now on every time I have a chicken sandwich, I will remember even more strongly that a death happened for that bit of meat. It's not morbid to see life in your food. It's valuing justly what is provided for your health and life... whether or not you are grateful for it is up to you.
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