I’ve never hunted, nor fished, nor been apart of the killing/processing of any kind of meat.
My 6yo is asking me how animals end up on our plate. I tend to over-explain and I think that wouldn’t be healthy in this situation.
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We don’t generally use hunting methods to kill farm-produced food animals (cows, etc.)…a really good hunting shot will quickly kill an animal but it’s still not particularly efficient.
The actual killing is done by “exsanguination”…removing their blood, typically by slitting their throat (big animals) or cutting their heads off (small ones). They are stunned first; there are multiple ways to stun them that all come down to electricity (shock them), gas (take away their oxygen and they fall asleep), or physically knocking them unconcious (by whacking their brain).
None of this is very kid friendly, but it’s real. The part I’d emphasize is that, done properly, the animal is stunned unconscious so it doesn’t feel anything anymore then they drain the blood out so they can carve it up into the meat we eat.
The part you probably don’t want to get into is that slaughterhouses’ record of doing this *well* is…not great.
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