Lauren Griffith, Entertainment Editor:

“I don’t eat meat. I haven’t ate meat for somewhere around seven years. I started out as a People for the Ethical Treating of Animals (PETA) advocate, wearing the t-shirts and covering my locker in stickers that read ‘meat is murder’. It is alright, you can judge me. And now, I’m embarrassed that I was ever that person who urged others not to eat meat. I still don’t eat meat, yet my views have radically changed.

Recently, D.I.Y animal slaughtering has been on the rise with urban gardening and urban farming. It is an effort for people to know where their food source comes from directly, rather than knowing it is from a conglomerate or a multi-million dollar farming corporation.

   Growing food for yourself can be healthier, and that’s not a problem. You know that your food does not come with antibiotics or growth hormones in it. You know what, if any, pesticides and chemicals are on your vegetables and what is being fed to any animals you might eat. Overall, I think that it is a smarter option.

In my future, I will probably start eating meat again. It is not the fact that it is an animal that bothered me—it is how the animal is treated. I can’t afford to eat family farm, grass-fed meat on a college budget, but I am not ruling that out for myself a couple of years from now.

    There is nothing wrong with someone raising animals to later slaughter them themselves—provide they have butcher skills, and enough land to raise animals on. One of the problems with this urban ‘farming’ is that urban properties do not allow enough land to raise animals on. There are neighbors, there is traffic, there are noise complaints. The situation isn’t idyllic with these, but if enough thought is put into the urban farm before it begins it could be better in the end. It just makes sense.”

Alyssia Jano, Cal Times Contributor:

“While many people think of animal slaughter as violent and gruesome, there is a shocking amount who believes that there is nothing wrong with animal slaughter. DIY animal slaughtering is basically the killing of potential pets in a person’s own backyard. The definition of animal slaughter, given by Wikipedia, is as follows; “Animal slaughter is the killing of nonhuman animals, usually referring to killing domestic livestock” (Wikipedia).

            I would like to point out a few interesting details about this definition. “…[I]s the killing of nonhuman animals” this part is irksome due to the fact that because these animals are not human, the process of slaughtering is often viewed as being okay. “…[D]omestic livestock” this means that these animals are raised by people and able to be tamed.

   Many of these animals being slaughtered are able to serve a greater purpose than simply being killed for meat. For example, many chickens raised in backyards are hens, and hens are able to lay eggs which would allow them to live while producing food that people can eat. Backyard animals slaughter is inhumane because there is not a one-hundred percent certainty that these animals will live long enough to be slaughtered. If a person has animals such as chickens, in their backyard, they are more likely to be drawing in other animals such as cats, raccoons, opossums, and other predators. These natural predators kill the chickens which defeats the purpose. Either way, these chickens were going to die but in these circumstances, they are dying for no reason.

      Aside from the being inhumane part of animal slaughtering in backyards, it is important to point out how it is an unsanitary practice. Not only is slaughter violent in terms of the amount of blood it leaves behind, but what about diseases that could arise if someone does not properly discard of the remains? With many people in cities who are trying to slaughter their own animals, neighbors are concerned that it will bring illness and disease. They are justly concerned; the slaughtering of these animals could lead to stench which is also able to make people sick and can account for some airborne disease. These backyard coops that people have been building in order to slaughter their own livestock are often high maintenance if the owner is concerned with keeping them sanitary. A bag of chicken food alone can cost around $12. Add that to the other expenses of keeping chickens such as: cleaning supplies, heat lamps, egg cartons, chickens themselves, and you will be spending more than if you were to simply buy eggs at a grocery store.

    The issue of backyard animal slaughter does not only involve the killing of chickens. If backyard slaughter is legal, it is legal. This means that the killing of horses for meat or other purposes is permissible. Horses are often thought of as pets but in the business of slaughter, they are simply another animal to kill for meat.

            Animal slaughtering in backyards is often times done in front of small children. This intense violence can have an effect on them throughout life. Small children who see these acts of slaughtering often end up vomiting or crying due to what they witnessed. It is easy to see that if a small child cries because of this slaughter, it is wrong. While the issue of animal slaughtering remains a debatable topic as to whether or not it should be legal, the opinion of those who oppose it is with whom I reside.”