Three Ways to Kill a Chicken

This fall, I've been exposed to three "methods" of butchering broilers (chickens): at a small-scale chicken processing facility, at a large vegetable farm, and at an Amish farm.

As an animal lover who can't stand the thought of animals suffering, I was intellectually interested yet emotionally uneasy to learn more about the grisley details of chicken slaughter. However, the contexts in which I witnessed chickens' demise, I knew, were about as "sustainable" and "humane" as it gets -- it was to be an easy introduction.

To my surprise, my exposure to chicken butchering actually was somewhat comforting -- it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In all cases, the deaths were quick, and it seemed that the chickens had no idea what was coming.

Granted, I didn't see any actual butchering at the factory; I just took a tour, saw all the equipment, and learned about the process from one of the employees. Our guide said the chickens were killed with an electric knife that both slit their throat and stunned them at the same time. Apparently, this is the most humane way to kill chickens. And it does indeed happen quickly. At that factory, they kill chickens one at a time at the rate of 13 chickens per minute.

I did see actual chickens killed at the vegetable farm and at the Amish farm. At the vegetable farm, it was somewhat mechanized; they do a couple hundred a day. However, the killing happens in the open air and the birds are caught and killed in small groups, so there are never very many birds "on deck" at the kill site.

Interestingly, the birds "in line" to be killed didn't seem to notice anything bad was happening. In fact, some free range laying hens walked into the "kill room" of their own volition and happily poked around, oblivious to the chickens bleeding out two feet away.

The butchering at the Amish farm was by far the best, in my opinion -- meaning it was the least traumatic for me to witness. I even helped out, catching the broilers and picking up their corpses after their heads were chopped off with an ax. The chickens, as far as I could tell, were completely unaware of what was about to happen, even as they had their neck on the chopping block. With one or two strokes, it was over -- the body summer-salting away while the farm dog scarfed down the head.

I think one day I might be able to kill a chicken myself -- something I never thought I would be capable of. It seems to me that decapitation, without any fearful anticipation, is not that bad of a way to go. It's certainly better than some of the alternatives.