Care of Amish Farm Animals

My Grandfather was a cattle rancher.  His ranch was pretty far from where we lived, we usually visited in the summer, one year a calf was born while we were there, my sister and I were allowed to name him, Firecracker it was near the 4th of July.  However, I did know that my grandfather raised cattle, that were going to end up on someone's dinner table! 

Even though we live in suburbia we have raised our children to know this too, the Bible says that God put creatures on the earth for man to be sustained.  When we are out and about in rural areas and see a field of cattle, we will say, "there's steak on the hoof!"    

We have butchered our own cows, we always send our pigs to the slaughterhouse to be done but it is a very reputable one . We have also done our own deer meat & have had the SH do it also , There are so many variaties they can do to the meat we can't. I have always let my children witness birth as well as the death of an animal , Be it at our hands to cook & eat it or even if we had a animal that took sick an was passing away. Sometimes there are tears shed from myself as well as one of the children , But it is always a lesson learned , these are things that we shouldnt be shielding our children from because they are a part of life an growing up. It would be great if no one ever had to expirence death of any kind but thats pretty much impossible. So when you go thru things you always explain, answer questions, & if need be wipe tears away with kisses.  How are children supose to grow up an know anything if they dont expirence things in life, As a parent of grown children an now young stepchildren & also a very young grandchild. I would deffinitly rather be the one teaching them about life, then  throwing them out into the world with no clue about anything.

Butchering day isn't a cruel tradition, it's not a tradition at all. It's how EVERYONE'S meat gets from the barn to the kitchen table!

This is what modern society seems to forget. Food doesn't just magically appear in the grocery store. That's what we farmers have to fight against. We raise our animals/crops, send them to market and don't get enough. The "Public" don't care because food is still in the stores. Most people are far too removed from the food chain and don't understand. All they think of animals as "Wilbur" and "Babe" not as pig #23 that's going to market/freezer tomorrow. That and they don't know how "food" animals are raised. Sometimes things need to be done that seem cruel, but there is always a reason.

Besides, like Luv says, Lovina's children do jobs that suit their ages. And speaking as a town girl married to a farmer, children raised with meat animals don't look at them like we "townies". They are "just animals" not cuddly "toys". I'm not saying they don't have feelings, they just understand the "circle of life".

I fully admit that there are cruel people out there that mistreat animals, just as there are people that mistreat children. The SPCA and the OSPCA do good work for the most part. But it also needs to be remembered that, at least here in Ontario, they are not fully trained in animal husbandry. They are given more power than the police and often that power goes to their heads. There have been more than a few cases in rural Ontario of the SPCA raiding a farm and taking all the animals, only to have the animals die in SPCA hands and those that manage to survive to be returned because the charges were unfounded.

The problem with most of present day Americans is that they want to "personify" everything. I was raised around butchering,as were my kids, and now my grandkids. We always explained to our kids that pigs or cows to be butchered were not pets. Do not name them, unless you choose Pork chop or Bacon or Burger!! They have grown up without ill effects, and still eat meat! In fact, in an earlier post on this site, I mentioned that we had just butchered a pig. Animals at huge feed lots set for slaughter are the most apt to be "abused", yet they are the very ones at the supermarkets and McDonald's across America. Let the small farmers and the Amish alone to carry on traditions that have been long standing in our country. The way our economy is heading, I'll bet you see more home butchering, etc. in the near future.

That is really interesting. I figure the Amish children are just used to this as a normal part of life, and probably don't think too much of it. From what Lovina writes, it is really a family gather/event and a time of fellowship, also. My aunt would never let my younger girl cousins go outside when the guys had a deer hanging from a tree, ready to be butchered. I guess everyone is entitled to what they want to do with their children, but I guess I just don't see anything damaging to it.