Free-range turkey

A 13 lb. organic, free-range turkey that hasn't been cooped up in a cage, covered in shit, and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics averages around $65 ($4.99/lb.). That is friggin' ridiculous!! Why must it be so expensive to eat clean food? A rhetorical question, of course, but still...

 

I have wild turkeys on my property... would be even better but I don't hunt.

 

Yikes! That's outrageous. While I think free range and organic are important, my main concerns lie with how the animal was treated and killed. There's a meat market here that sells meat that was humanely raised and slaughtered, which I feel better about buying from. My ultimate preference is wild game though. My neighbor's dad has dozens of wild turkeys on his property that I could go hunt if I really wanted to.

 

Estimate how much it costs to buy a baby turkey, build a little fence for it, feed it for two years, and then eat it. Of course turkeys, like babies, are cheaper by the dozen.

But for some reason people call you a monster if you invite them over for Thanksgiving baby. But what if we die and go to hell and god turns out to be a giant turkey? Eternal damnation, that's what.

 

If you want to ensure that your animals are kept and slaughtered humanely then look into Kosher foods. That's where we get ours

 

long time ago, I was walking down the railroad tracks when a momma turkey and her jennies and jakes/boy and girls/ were stuck inside the rail.. I did the honorable thing, helped them escape and kept one.

I stuck it in my basement, inside a dog cage. and I feed it worms, crickets til it was big enough to eat on its own. it eventually became a house pet. close enough to call it a guard turkey. when people would come on the property it would attack them. it would come in the house on its own and the "when is it going to become dinner" jokes were common.

I couldnt bring myself to kill it. I loaded it into my truck and drove it some 30miles away and let it go when it was about 3yrs old. In my state they could live to age of 4yrs, but chances are in the wild it will die in 2 or 3yrs.

 

I just did a Google search, and didn't come up with anything in my area of the state.

 

Kosher does not seem to mean to be slaughtered as humanely as possible. It has been pointed out to me because it was an issue in the Netherlands here when there was tried to place a ban on both kosher and halal butchering because the ritual actually causes the animal to bleed to death which is not the same as painless/humane.

 

Sounds like the best option to me! Both financially and humane-wise (except if you have to shoot it more than once to kill perhaps )

 

Really?
Mormons don't eat Kosher?
Well, imagine that.

 

Lol, I don't know any Mormons here. There's one tiny Mormon church around here somewhere though.

 

Yeah but that area, Wyoming, Utah, is pretty much Mormon central in the U.S.
My wife spent the last half of her childhood in Green River, very, very, very Mormon area.

 

Before being slaughtered animals are checked for any injuries or defects. If any are found they are not taken. This is for two reasons
1: This ensures the quality of the meat
2: It keeps more common methods of raising from being used.

The knife used, the Chalif, must be so sharp and unblemished that if one were to cut themself with it they would feel no pain.

The incision cuts the esophagus, trachea, carotid arteries, and jugular, in one swift action. The animal dies within 2 seconds most of the time.

I am not saying that this is a universal gauruntee that the slaughtered animal feels no pain, or that the methods above are more humane, but as you can see all of the steps taken are to make it's passing as easy as possible.

 

Ha, really? I've lived here for 21 years and only ever met one Mormon family.

 

Hmm, just sounds like religious ritual to me.
Honestly the most humane way is the air hammer to the skull, instant brain death, no time to feel anything.
Slitting somethings throat the brain is still active and conscious for as long as it takes the cells to die from lack of oxygen/blood. That could take as long as a minute or more.

 

Good you are not saying that, since kosher is in the first place about religious ritual habits and not in the first place about humane butchering (although it does not have to exclude eachother). Wether an animal is dead in 2 seconds for example all depends on the butcher, same with how sharp his knife might be. It can (and does) differ alot in reality.

 

Meh. Kosher, free range, and organic aside. All I know is I can't support this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju7-n7wygP0&sns=em"]Must Watch Film! Farm to Fridge by Mercy for Animals (The Truth About Meat Production) - YouTube

 

Shooting a wild turkey sounds best to me. I wouldn't insist on turkey myself but that's because we don't have this tradition. I really like turkey meat though

 

yay another thread turned into a religious discussion..