Animal cruelty?

[RD.]

BTW, you veggie-only types: thank yer lucky stars that humans don't have to consume live food to breed.
This is common among the few fish I have bred.

Very few species of fish require live food, in order to become conditioned to breed, typically just those that strictly eat live in captivity.




I've lost count how many animals I have killed, cleaned, butchered, and eaten. From thousands of fish, to elk and moose. Not for blood lust, I was putting food on the table when times were lean. Nowadays I just make a trip to the grocery store, and I have given up fishing for sport. I don't eat lobster, so that's a non issue for me.

 

[BichirMohawk]

Well when you freeze it the cells slow till they explode from ice crystals building up inside them. This happens on most cold blooded animals unless they hibernate on a regular basis. Those have an elevated level of glucose in their blood stopping formation of ice crystals. Think frogs, goldfish, some turtles....so on. Sounds painful to me. Thats where the they dont feel like we do comes in.....lies. Dispatch the animal as fast as possible is the least cruel. People confuse being alive with electrical impulses continuing with in a muscle ie beating of a heart. Kill the brain and death is eminent. Cutting off the head is not killing the brain at least not right away. Most slaughter houses imploy a lethal blow to the head to dispatch pigs and cows now and is considered the most "humane" form of dispatch.
As I said earlier with the lobster destroying the brain. But honestly its safest for us to boil it alive as the meat is cooked asap and doesnt have time to build toxins. Unfortunately for crabs it's to hard to destroy the brain so frozen, boil, bake or broil and or torn apart alive is about the only way. I was a cook in a couple higher end restaurants early in life ive killed many crustations. Like everything else you become numb to it after awhile. I dont eat those anymore for the most part. If I do I ask if the chef dispatches the live lobster before boil and I usually get a weird look and if possible the chef may come for a visit. But most often I just dont go to actual seafood restaurants

I take back what I said about the freezer method, and I did not know about the toxins. I think you were just doing your job.

 

[RD.]

Freezing, hypothermia, I agree, not exactly a pleasant way to check out.

 

[PYRU]

So what's the humane way to kill a lobster for consumption?

 

[twentyleagues]

So what's the humane way to kill a lobster for consumption?

As i stated earlier basically cut the head in half length wise. The brain is just behind the eyes in the middle of the head. Boil immediately after or flash freeze. Some cut the whole lobster in half after and broil usually for "stuffed lobster".

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Well guess I stirred the pot a bit with my "blood lust " comments a few posts back. Let me be a bit more clear or at lest try to. Most of the folks I am around and know of do not need to hunt in order to feed themselves or a family. I cannot say for sure why they hunt other than what I observe and hear said.

While working in NC for almost two years I rented a room from a man who was an avid hunter. He and his son would hunt anything and most everything. Often they brought home deer but a rattle snake, rabbit, birds or big mess of frogs were not uncommon. I would go fishing with them and they kept any eating sized fish. They had good jobs and more than enough money to buy food.

I recall many times after a hunt the graphic detail they and other hunters would go into about a kill. Vivid descriptions of how a bullets path had torn apart bones and internal organs. About how far an animal could run with a fatal wound. Let me be more clear it was not just those two men, but I heard the same talk from other hunters I knew well enough. There was often very excited talk about the details of the kill.

So perhaps my definition of "blood lust" it is too narrow for most. If you can afford to buy meat from a store and also have the many hundreds if not thousands of dollars needed to go hunting then hunting is a blood lust sport.

I get that a common mantra is "I eat what I kill". This makes sense to me and I do not have a problem with it at all. I am all for eating an animal you kill. This just seems logical and is perfectly alright. Underneath this concept looms the question of why go to all the trouble? There is a visceral feeling when killing an animal and it may well reach back to our ancestry as hunter gatherers. I can recall some of the feeling I had as a child when killing a chicken for a family dinner. I did not feel bad about it but it was not a casual thing exactly. My mom made great fried chicken and I especially loved the livers. Point might be If you can drive down to the store and get plenty of meat or fish why do the killing yourself? Have I said it enough that killing for food seems a chore to me?

Don't get me wrong. I am not a PETA person. I would rather live in a place surrounded by hunters than animal rights folks. I could care less that my neighbors come home with a dead deer. Those hunters know their way around guns and for one thing are much less likely to shoot me on accident.

So if a person gets some sort of satisfaction by hunting and killing that is just fine. To me it is a chore type activity. If I get hungry enough I will kill again but I have not been that hungry in a long time. I will go to the fridge in a minute and make a ham sandwich. I will also be thankful for the meat packers out there and do hope they make a decent living.

 

[twentyleagues]

Hello; Well guess I stirred the pot a bit with my "blood lust " comments a few posts back. Let me be a bit more clear or at lest try to. Most of the folks I am around and know of do not need to hunt in order to feed themselves or a family. I cannot say for sure why they hunt other than what I observe and hear said.

While working in NC for almost two years I rented a room from a man who was an avid hunter. He and his son would hunt anything and most everything. Often they brought home deer but a rattle snake, rabbit, birds or big mess of frogs were not uncommon. I would go fishing with them and they kept any eating sized fish. They had good jobs and more than enough money to buy food.

I recall many times after a hunt the graphic detail they and other hunters would go into about a kill. Vivid descriptions of how a bullets path had torn apart bones and internal organs. About how far an animal could run with a fatal wound. Let me be more clear it was not just those two men, but I heard the same talk from other hunters I knew well enough. There was often very excited talk about the details of the kill.

So perhaps my definition of "blood lust" it is too narrow for most. If you can afford to buy meat from a store and also have the many hundreds if not thousands of dollars needed to go hunting then hunting is a blood lust sport.

I get that a common mantra is "I eat what I kill". This makes sense to me and I do not have a problem with it at all. I am all for eating an animal you kill. This just seems logical and is perfectly alright. Underneath this concept looms the question of why go to all the trouble? There is a visceral feeling when killing an animal and it may well reach back to our ancestry as hunter gatherers. I can recall some of the feeling I had as a child when killing a chicken for a family dinner. I did not feel bad about it but it was not a casual thing exactly. My mom made great fried chicken and I especially loved the livers. Point might be If you can drive down to the store and get plenty of meat or fish why do the killing yourself? Have I said it enough that killing for food seems a chore to me?

Don't get me wrong. I am not a PETA person. I would rather live in a place surrounded by hunters than animal rights folks. I could care less that my neighbors come home with a dead deer. Those hunters know their way around guns and for one thing are much less likely to shoot me on accident.

So if a person gets some sort of satisfaction by hunting and killing that is just fine. To me it is a chore type activity. If I get hungry enough I will kill again but I have not been that hungry in a long time. I will go to the fridge in a minute and make a ham sandwich. I will also be thankful for the meat packers out there and do hope they make a decent living.

I only saw one comment that seemed to be agreeing with you and asking how you felt about some other topics. How'd you stir the pot? Seems we are having a good conversation with no one getting worked up over silly stuff. Lets keep the good feelings going.... huh!

 

[islandguy11]

The concept of humane way to kill is absurd. You are killing it. Now a quick death versus a tortious death is really what we are asking about. Taking a life is taking a life. For lobsters the quickest way to do it is to insert a knife behind the head and cut the head in half length wise. You have to be careful as a toxin is released shortly after death into the meat of a lobster and not cooking it or freezing it asap will result in illness.

Wow that's interesting, didn't know that about the toxins (but then I can't/don't really cook much either Btw, does that release of toxins also happen when cutting off the heads of similar crustaceans like shrimp and prawn? Also I would guess these toxins don't effect fish that might eat crustaceans, correct? as they surely don't cut off their heads in the wild.

 

[RD.]

Hunters are like a box of chocolates ……...




That being said, in my younger years when putting food on the table I didn't need to spend hundreds/thousands of $$$ to put a deer, elk, or moose in the freezer. I live within an hours drive of the Rocky Mountains, and while not a common occurrence we have had moose walk down the front street where I live. Below is a cow & her young bull calf that greeted my wife one morning when she was out walking the dog. We have also had bears, mountain lions etc in the city, and deer feed on the shrubs etc on our front lawn on a regular basis. I could fill a freezer full of meat, for well under $100. CAD. If I wanted to poach one, I could fill a freezer for almost nothing.

At one point, a couple of decades ago, I simply lost the heart to kill wild animals, even if the cuts at the local meat market were more costly. Nowadays I spend my extra $$$ on filling bird & squirrel feeders, and of course fish food. lol

 

[twentyleagues]

Wow that's interesting, didn't know that about the toxins (but then I can't/don't really cook much either Btw, does that release of toxins also happen when cutting off the heads of similar crustaceans like shrimp and prawn? Also I would guess these toxins don't effect fish that might eat crustaceans, correct? as they surely don't cut off their heads in the wild.

Pretty sure its just lobster maybe crawfish....not sure on that though. Id guess fish are not effected by it. I also dont remeber the actual time it takes for the toxins to form or build to dangerous levels. Most of the time the tails and claws are torn or cut off and put in ice water for preparation later in the day. Most of the issues come from the body sections and whole lobsters are prepared live or you might buy them in the freezer section precooked and frozen.