This piece describes culling an animal in graphic detail. You might not want to read it if you’re vegan, uncomfortable with killing, or eating lamb tonight. But I hope you will, and if you do, please read through to the end.
It’s more of a pop than a bang. An air-sucking, ear-splitting, earth-cracking pop. Exploding. Heart-stopping. Instantaneous. Pop. The animal crumples, lifeless. The gaping silence that immediately opens rouses me to action. I step in, knife wielded, to finish it. Not that it needs finishing. My husband’s aim is true (he is, after all, a seasoned hunter, and to possess a firearm in Ireland one must be licensed and trained to handle it). He uses a 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun with a 2¾ inch slug at close range. Which may be a little bit overkill. But we want to be sure. According to UK guidelines, this is the most humane way to dispatch an animal on farm (besides having the vet out to euthanise which would render the meat unfit for anything but the rendering plant,…
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