Baby Goat and Sweetie

We have a new baby goat. They sure are cute when they are little.

In sadder news for the herd, I have to cull Sweetie, one of my original nannies. She has chronic foot problems, and she hasn't kidded in over a year.

We don't send animals to the commodities market on our farm; we consider that inhumane and disrespectful of the animal. So, unless the animal is sick (in which case we shoot it and burn it), we eat it ourselves. Sweetie is destined to be ground meat and smoked sausage. She is the first adult nanny that I cull, so I am not sure what is best to do with her, and that is what my butcher recommends.

Some people don't understand how I can eat an animal that I have named and cared for. I don't understand why they would prefer to eat an animal that they know nothing about how it lived. Since she came onto my farm, I know that Sweetie has lived an idyllic goat life. If I buy meat at the supermarket, I can guarentee that the animal was not treated as well as I treat mine. I am therefore complaicent in whatever was done to that animal to get it to my table.

When things die, other things eat them; it is nature's way. Only humans fill our bodies with strange chemicals in an attempt to deny that process.


I admit that I am sorry to see Sweetie go. She was named for her disposition, and not in sarcasm.