Once you’ve decided to have animals on your farm, you will sooner or later have to ask yourself: what are we going to do with the chicken, sheep or goat when it dies? Our Approach is to keep animals for multiple purposes: hens lay eggs, ducks eat snails, goats give milk, sheep additionally provide wool – all of them take care of the landscape and fertilise with their manure. And what about the meat? Should we eat the animal in order to make use of its meat even though we are vegetarians? During a conversation I had with Gwen, who was also helping on the farm, she told me how she had actually preferred eating the meat of “Fränzchen”, a sheep she used to know, compared to its store-bought equivalent. To her, eating the meat was a form of appreciation at the end of an animal’s life. The alternatives would either be the sale of the meat or the container of the slaughterhouse, where the animals are then burned. So when an animal dies, what do you do? You might now believe this to be none of your business because you don’t work or live with farm animals. Well, maybe your grandparents did or at least they still knew the cow, pork or chicken they were eating because villages used to be much more closely-knit back then and the meat on their plates came from the local farmer not from the store. While today, most of us have never even touched a chicken let alone seen a dead one before. We have simply lost touch with the animals that provide the piece of meat on our plates nowadays.
Generally, I was able to gradually overcome my reservations towards farm animals at the different farms we’ve been. When Birk and I first found a dead chicken, we reluctantly and slightly repulsed picked it up by its foot using a handkerchief and threw it into the woods. And honestly, I think such reservations are completely normal for people who haven’t grown up on a farm. Nevertheless, anyone can overcome these fears as well. At the Eisathhof, another WWOOFer named Martha and I were supposed to mark the chickens by putting rings on their feet, so that we would later be able to differentiate them once they were all together out in the open. Had I known, that we were talking about the grown-up hens and slightly scary roosters, instead of the cute little chicks, I certainly wouldn’t have suggested to take care of this… Anyway, Martha was used to chickens from home and very determinedly grabbed each hen and rooster in turn, no matter how much they resisted and fluttered, while I put the rings on their feet. I found this very impressive and expressed my utmost respect to Martha afterwards. I, on the other hand, touched a chicken’s foot for the first time that day. And even though this might sound like a small step, it helped tremendously and one week later, I grabbed three dead hens by their feet without a problem to carry them into the woods. Where I carefully placed them one next to the other. With their eyes closed they looked quite peaceful actually.
Bringing the dead chicken into the forest to give it to the fox also has its purpose – that way he hopefully spares the ones that are still alive. But a sheep? Or a goat? On a farm with animals one is confronted with death much more frequently than in everyday life. You become much more aware of the fact that death is a part of life. And sometimes that means, that a chick won’t get the chance to grow up because it has a crossbill and cannot eat properly. That your dogs break into the breeding barn and kill the chicks born a couple of days ago. Or that a sheep won’t reach the age of 2, because the worms have become so resistant that even strong doses of worming medicine won’t help anymore. Concerning the sheep, I found her in the barn lying on her side during the morning feeding. She couldn’t stand up alone anymore and if you picked her up, she fell to the ground shortly after. Michael told me that, in his experience, even with another worming treatment, in 3 days she would be dead.
So what do you do? Slaughter her or let her die naturally? These are decisions that small farmers regularly have to make. While huge farms practicing factory farming see the animals as “products”, small farmers often see them as co-workers or companions. I mean you take care of them every single day.
On the one hand you could spare them the pain by deciding to kill them and thereby be able to eat the meat while it is still edible. On the other hand, you could decide to let them live a bit longer and probably won’t be able to use the meat anymore, because it needs to be processed shortly after death. Think about it yourself…
Back to the sheep – that day, she was doing better after having eaten some hay. I quietly went to the barn a couple more times afterwards to check if she was still standing and she was. In the following days I picked her up in the mornings when she was lying on the ground, carried her over to the hay and gave her carrots. For some reason I was happy that I could help her a little even though I knew that the worms wouldn’t just disappear and I could tell that she was quickly deteriorating. 3 days later, she was dead. And somehow I was thankful that she was released and that I was able to experience this and learn how to cope with it. When I found her, the side on which she had been lying was still warm and when I picked her up a last sound slipped away from her body. It was my last working day and after having said goodbye to the flock, I shortly hesitated, and finally also stroked the dead sheep’s head. With her eyes closed, she seemed to be just as peaceful as the hens had been.
When I set off early the next morning, the chicks had hatched – the cycle of life.
And just as much as with vegetables, we have lost touch with the animals that provide the meat on our plates and the cycle of their lives due to industrialisation and the movement away from small farms towards mass production.
How many of us would in fact still eat meat if they had to slaughter the animal themselves or even just take responsibility for their decision to kill it?
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