Happy Friday everyone! I figured I'd start my Friday off by sharing with you all my story about the time I helped with the killing of 50 chickens.
Every Friday afternoon the orphanage kills 50 chickens. Remar is pretty self-sustainable and since they don't receive any Government funding, one of the ways they make money to keep the orphanage running is to raise their own chickens, kill them and sell them to people in the city of San Salvador. The chickens are high quality, very delicious and sell for $8.00 per piece as they are in-demand and people usually need to sign up for a waiting list to purchase them.
Every Friday afternoon the orphanage kills 50 chickens. Remar is pretty self-sustainable and since they don't receive any Government funding, one of the ways they make money to keep the orphanage running is to raise their own chickens, kill them and sell them to people in the city of San Salvador. The chickens are high quality, very delicious and sell for $8.00 per piece as they are in-demand and people usually need to sign up for a waiting list to purchase them.
There are about 15-20 kids who are involved in the process, and I had the opportunity to take part last Friday. What was I thinking? Yeah...What was I thinking right?!?!?!?!
Chicken Killing Process:
- It involves one of the kids in the chicken farm calming each chicken (they say that if the chicken is anxious before it dies, it makes for a bad tasting chicken) before it's passed along to the teenage boy who does the killing.
- The chicken is placed upside down in this half cut milk container with a hole at the bottom where the chicken's head pop's out, slits the throat for the blood to drain out into a bucket.
- Once the blood is drained, the chicken is dipped in hot boiling water for 5-10 seconds in order to open the pores and placed in a huge machine that de-feathers the chicken.
- My lovely task during the process? After the chicken pops out of the machine, the kids bring them over to the table where I had to pull out the feathers that did not come off in the machine. Imagine, standing there with this dead chicken (head on and all staring at you) and pulling away at leftover feathers....for 3 hours! Not only were we pulling the leftover feathers off, but we also had to pull have the skin off the chicken feet
- The chickens are dipped in boiling water for 5-10 seconds again and then brought over the station where they remove all the insides
- Finally, chickens are brought over to inventory where they are counted, packaged in bags and stored in the fridge
After the first 30 minutes of plucking away at these feathers with a group of girls (ranging from ages 6 to 17) with my fingers (there were no tweezers to use at all), I wanted to quit. Especially when you think you're done with all the feathers and the kid brings it back to you saying that you're not done! The killing, the repetitive visual of the whole process and the fact that my fingers were smelling like chicken and getting chicken juice splattered all over me wasn't making me a happy camper. I then looked over at Jahaida, she's a 6 year old girl, smiling away and focusing on her task of plucking away at all the feathers of the chicken and making sure she got every bit off before handing it over to the next station. Jahaida looked over at me and smiled, tried to talk to me in spanish and helped me with my chicken since I wasn't getting all my feathers. I stop, look at Jahaida and all these orphans around me working away. To them, it was just a chore and something they needed to do each week. This is something I don't have to go through every week and here I am feeling grossed out and wanting to quit. I sucked it up, ignored my negative feelings and continued until were finished with 50 chickens. Boy was I happy when I plucked the feathers off my last chicken!
I was a vegetarian once upon a time, and I also have many vegetarian/vegan friends who don't believe in eating animals, against animal cruelty, etc. After being involved in this chicken killing process and telling friends and family at home about this experience. Please don't think that this is cruel, it's a way of living and surviving for them. The next time I eat my piece of chicken, I will never be able to eat it the same way again. There is so much effort and time that goes into that piece of meat on your dinner plate.
Vegetarians and vegan friends at home (Nicole Martin xo) please don't judge me!
That's all for now. More posts to come.
Hasta luego!
Elly
xo
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