Justification

My Peace Corps friend, Kelly, told me I should not have named Houdini. She was right. You should not name your food. It makes it even harder to kill it. I seriously thought about passing off the duties to someone, but in a weird way I felt obligated to do it myself, like I owed it to Houdini. I raised him, and I should be responsible for killing him.

So I did it. I felt bad about it, and I still do. But I did it.

I am a meat eater. I love meat, and I eat a lot of it. Before coming to Guatemala I had never seen an animal slaughtered for food. I bought my meat in plastic wrapped packages, and I liked it that way. I still do. A plastic bag with thin slices of turkey breast is a far cry from the animal it once was, and it makes you forget that what you are eating was previously a living creature (which is why I have always liked it). But I have seen many chickens and turkeys killed here for food. It is a process that is foreign and disturbing yet interesting. It is a process that most Americans have probably not seen and especially not experienced.

I posted the video of me killing Houdini on YouTube and received this angry comment from a viewer:

I don't understand how people can raise an animal then kill it, especially like that? That was freaking brutal. And why would you want to advertise your lack of compassion for the whole world to see? That's nothing to brag about.

The comment really bothered me, so I replied to the viewer with the following:

In the developing world people raise and kill animals all the time. There is probably not a single person in rural Guatemala who has not killed a duck, turkey, or chicken, or at least seen it happen. People do it not because they like killing or because it is fun, but because it is their source of food. And I chose to do it, because I wanted to have a better appreciation of my food source by raising and killing it myself.

And I suppose by your censure saying the video I uploaded was “freaking brutal,” that you have never seen a turkey killed before. When you kill a turkey or chicken whether it be by twisting their necks, slitting their throats, or cutting out their tongues (all forms I have seen used here in Guatemala), the animal convulses. This may appear “freaking brutal,” but it is an unavoidable reaction of the dying body.

So I am not glorifying killing, and you have no right to question my compassion. I love animals, and I could never kill one for sport or fun. Killing a turkey to eat it is NOT animal abuse. That turkey, my turkey, lived a very good life, well fed and free from cages. And despite what you might have gathered from the video, it was very difficult for me to kill my turkey pet. I did it, not because I am compassionless and brutal as you have suggested, but because as a meat eater I wanted to be an active participant in my food chain. And I put it on the internet, not because I am bragging, but because many people, like yourself, have no idea what the process is like.

When poor rural Guatemalans want to eat meat, they don’t go to the supermarket. They go to their backyard and pick out the biggest chicken. But as Americans we are so far removed from the realities of our food chain that simply witnessing the process of how that Butterball got on our Thanksgiving plate leads us to condemn others. If you don’t want to see how a turkey is killed and prepared to be cooked, then don’t watch the video and look at the pictures. But if you want to get past the plastic wrapping and have a better understanding of from where that piece of meat you are eating came, then feel free to look.

I know after having killed my own meal, I have a better appreciation for the meat I eat.