Backyard poultry

[Shaunc]

I've kept a vegetable patch & a small flock of chooks in our backyard for years.
Today when I got home from work I went down the yard to pick a few tomatoes & feed & water the animals. One of the hens was on the floor of the coop on its last legs. My daughter, Kathleen, was following me around as per usual & I told her to go upstairs. She asked me why & I told her not to ask questions and just do it. Of course she didn't listen to me and just stood outside the chooks house intently watching me. I picked up the bird and as sick and weak as it was it struggled sensing I believe in what would come next. I tried stroking her a few times to settle her down but it was to No avail. I snapped her neck & after a minute or so of kicking around the hen house she stopped moving and I buried her near the capsicums. I hope her next life is a better one. I remembered the merits she accumulated in this life when me and Kathy would offer Dana of a dozen eggs to the Thai monks we know and all the friends and neighbors that have picked up a few eggs of us over the years.
Sorry to vent off here, but I really don't like killing. I know that I'll probably accrue some bad karma from this action but to leave an old bird like that and not trying to ease her suffering may bring me even worse karma, I believe. Maybe, but I don't know.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Shaunc

I know that I'll probably accrue some bad karma from this action...

You do ?
My thoughts would be different on this.

I am sorry for your loss and that we have to do these things in life.
I'm thinking in your life review your spirit guide would be very pleased with
these few moments of yours here.

[Shaunc]

Killing is never a good thing. Of course there is a huge difference between killing in anger, killing for survival & killing out of compassion. But I do believe there will be a certain amount of bad karma involved, but no where near the amount of bad karma involved as someone who killed in anger and certainly less than if I would have let her just lie there waiting for nature to run her course. Although it could be argued that nature did run her course as I too am part of nature, and in this backyard I'm a pretty important part of it.

[WhiteWarrior]

To take responsibility for an animal be it pet or stock, is to ensure it has a good health - and a quick painless death when its time comes. Isn't that what we all want for ourselves as well? I do not think Mother Earth will be faulting you for upholding your duties.

[Shaunc]

Originally Posted by WhiteWarrior

To take responsibility for an animal be it pet or stock, is to ensure it has a good health - and a quick painless death when its time comes. Isn't that what we all want for ourselves as well? I do not think Mother Earth will be faulting you for upholding your duties.

That's true. If you own animals of any type, you're responsible for them from birth to the grave. Looking at it more logically now that I've had a night to sleep on it, what I did was really just basic animal husbandry, no different really than when I check their food & water. It's just a basic thing that occasionally has to be done when you keep animals. They don't like being de-loused much either but it has to be done.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Shaunc

But I do believe there will be a certain
amount of bad karma involved.

And so there will be.

I could have done the same act...and there would be none for me;
such is what we believe, we create.

[Tobi]

Once when I had a gun I used for target shooting only, I used to shoot rabbits which I found with Mixi. That is the most dreadful disease which results in them dying a slow lingering and painful death, and it can take ages.
I had mixed feelings doing that. At the time I didn't know their souls went to another dimension. But all I knew was I had witnessed a rabbit struggling in the field, unable to see, its eyes fused shut, unable to hear, and almost unable to move, and I couldn't just walk away and leave it to suffer.
(I always burned their bodies to make sure predators and scavengers wouldn't eat the diseased meat.)

I felt a great emotional sorrow for what I had to do, but did it cleanly and they passed instantly. I also felt a great gladness somehow but it felt bittersweet. To my view I know I did the 'right' thing. But could not do it without feeling something which always upset me slightly.
I don't think those emotions are unnatural. It's a big thing to take a life. But at least we didn't want them to suffer any more in a hopeless physical condition.
Vets do that often for animals who have no other medical option left. They won't have 'bad karma' from setting a soul free from a body in agony, where there is no other option except great suffering.

[Star Wolf Medicine Woman]

I have to say I've had a few flocks of layers in my time, but I never 'dispatched' any of them myself.. I do not think I would kill them. Around here, we trade them in l and let someone else do the dead.. They buy them off us but the value is such that 6 old boilers is worth only one point of lay pullet..
I thought the eggs were superb and the poultry manure in a trench produced the biggest onions ever..

[Shaunc]

Same thing again today. They're all getting old. At the moment it's autumn but my flock will have to be replaced by spring. Sorry to bore you all but it's a job I hate doing. The only difference this time is at least none of the kids was with me. This time smokey, our whippet followed me down, when he saw what I did he couldn't get away fast enough.

Shaunc:

I'm Hindu. Karma is my thing lol.

I've had pets who were ill and suffering, and I've had them put to sleep by vets. I've had other Hindus tell me I should not have done that, and I so tremendously disagree!! To allow them to suffer, when they are in our care, would have been egregiously wrong! Now, in your situation, I'm sorry to say I do not believe I would have had the strength to put your animal out of its misery, and would have caused it to suffer further while I took it to someone who could. I think what you did was the most humane and loving thing that could be done. I don't see how bad karma could be generated by such an act, or bad anything, for that matter.