To answer the OP's question: I raise goats and slaughter the kids and place them in the freezer.

I live in prime hunting country, and I'm working hard to get involved in the process of field dressing and butchering an elk this season.

I'm curious to test my limitations in this area. Without ever having done it, it's hard to imagine plunging a knife into the guts of a still-warm animal. I feel like it's a kind of rite of passage though, to confront the source of one's food.

I have not, but feel duty bound to be present in an abbatoir at least once in my life. I also will somewhere down the track try and get the opportunity to do the deed myself - given how much meat I eat I would like to appreciate the animal and see what they go through for my benefit.

My parents came from Greek villages where it was routine to keep livestock that they slaughtered and butchered themselves. The exception being the larger animals who were butchered the local specialist. Generally, chickens, rabbits, spring lamb, goats, etc were dispatched at their small farm. I never sought to disguise my loathing for killing the animals, despite the bemusement of my relatives. But I did eat the food, and it was delicious.

I am averse to killing animals. If I were pressed by extreme hunger and the need to help those close to me survive, I imagine I would - having no other resort - kill an animal for food. In the lab it's a similar thing. I've purposefully designed experiments that use the smallest possible number to obtain statistical power and then meticulously harvested organs and cells so as not to let any go to waste and another animal need to be sacrificed.

It would probably be easier if the animal were trying to kill me. I imagine that under such circumstances an internal paradigm shift occurs and base instincts activate. But it has not happened yet, and I dont believe it ever will living where I do.

I've also been to a slaughterhouse. To say it was an awful, terrible, soul wrenching experience would be a gross understatement. I strongly recommend it to everyone who likes to eat meat. If you can still enjoy meat obtained from such circumstances with the same relish then I would prefer if you stayed away from me and mine.

I do eat meat occasionally - more fish these days than red meat - and sometimes reflect on the memories of the slaughterhouse when I do.

My final reflection , however, is that in an era where there is such an abundance of alternative, healthy food - where there is now an obesity epidemic as a result of such an abundance - that people cannot be more ethically responsible about their food consumption. Clearly an adjustment in diet composition with a decrease in processed carbs and increase in protein and O3 fats is the right direction but there are always alternatives.

I butchered my own food for 10 years, everything from poultry and rabbits to goats. We took our cows and hogs to a butcher. I think everyone who eats meat should butcher their own animal at least once in their life. It's a good experience to really know where your food comes from.

Slaughter...is that code for extreme masturbation?

Me. Though I don't shoot the large mammals but I'm there for the kill and flaying and work on the butchering/processing. I regularly butcher my own birds.

nothing looks as good on a stark vermont tree than a deer hanging from the empty branches of the maple with a pile of foliage beneath. i might live in SoCal, but you can't take the Vermont out of me!

Me! Well, I helped hold down about a dozen sheep while a pretty badass Mongolian herder cut them open and reached in to pinch off their aortas, killing them in less than 20 seconds. Does that count?

Growing up I hunted deer and rabbit with my father and brother - some of my best memories involve leading my unsuspecting friends (girls) into our dark garage to scare them with the hanging, skinned whole deer!

And the other best memories involve helping my dad butcher the deer, cutting the meat off the bones, packaging it all up ... We'd always save the tenderloin and fry it up with salt, pepper and butter after we were finished :) I hope to get back into it, there's nothing like wild meat from the bush to the table all done yourself!

I was raised on a farm, we always slaughtered our own meat. I fished and hunted as well. Ahhhh the good old days.

Yup! Pretty much all my life. Deer, hogs, cows, fish, squirrel, rabbit, turkey.

Yes, we do a lot of our own meats. Deer, hogs, cattle, small game, fish...

My stepmother hit a deer with her car on accident. It was dead but the injuries were only to its head. She called the police so that they would allow her to take the deer home. We helped her put it in the back of her pickup and her and I gutted and cleaned it. We however sent it to the butcher for processing. It was a really gross job (my dad kept dry heaving) but the butcher said we did wonderfully. The meat got divided between us and it lasted for 4 months.

I have killed and eaten fish, frogs, and poultry, but so far no mammals. I have always believed it important to see and perform the entire process, from capture to slaughter to preparation and eating. The taking of a life for sustenance is a basic human activity, and for me it has always been a way to remind me of my connection to all other life, and feel grateful for the life of the animal I am eating.

I have slaughtered an animal for meat, so, me.

I hunt and have slaughtered livestock. Good for people to see where there food comes from.

I hunt with a bow. My husband and I process our own venison, it is my favorite meat. We never harvest anything we wouldn't eat. Last year I took a wild turkey with my bow. It wasn't very good eating, so we don't hunt turkeys anymore.

does a fish count?

I agree with Rob. I've never hunted but I would like to. If anyone in the LA area would like to go hunting, let me know :P

Only fish, mollusks and Crustacea. Uncomplicated tame stuff. Based on my filleting skills I'd make a real mess as a butcher.

Sure have: chicken, dove, quail, sheep, and hogs.

I did not pull the trigger or cut the artery myself, but I was present at a pig slaughter this summer and helped butcher the animal once it [mostly] stopped twitching. I felt it was important that I be part of the process at least once if I were to be ethically okay with eating meat. (I was vegetarian/vegan for a long time.) I would and will do it again, probably via hunting or raising/processing chickens next time.

I guess if you count bivalves, I kill those regularly. (I don't count those so much.)

I never have. I admit I have some serious disconnect when it comes to animals and meat. I think they're cute and I could never hurt them, but I don't mind having the middle man doing the job for me providing it's done humanely.