Killing day

Thursday is killing day in Erleichda.

Because it is a special day I always rise early, and spend some considerable time sharpening my knives, of which I have two - a straight one and a curved one. Sharp knives make both the killing and the dying easier.

Usually I will have an audience for the killing, for we encourage our children to be aware, and new residents are encouraged to attend. It is important, we believe, for everyone to acknowledge that for us to live, something must die.

The straight knife is for killing sheep and cattle, the curved knife is for pigs.

To kill a sheep, I hold it by the front legs, and sit it on its rump, with its back to me, as if I were about to shear it. With my right leg between its two back legs, I lie it down, and bend its head over my left ankle, stretching and exposing its throat. Then, as quickly and as powerfully as possible, I cut its throat, and snap the head backwards to break the neck, and death seems to be virtually instantaneous. Cutting the throat ensures that the animal bleeds properly, enhancing both the flavour and keeping qualities of the meat.

Cattle are too big for me to manhandle in such a fashion, so I use a .22 rifle to shoot them in a spot between and just above the eyes. This stuns the beast, which falls to the ground, and I then use my straight knife to cut its throat, ensuring proper bleeding, as with the sheep.

I use a special implement, something like an axe, but with a blunt point instead of a blade, to stun pigs before I kill them. As with cattle, I aim for a point between and just above the eyes, and if I am accurate, the animal is immediately stunned, and I can proceed with the killing. I must remain calm, and swing accurately, because if I miss the correct spot, I will only hurt the pig, which will then tend to panic, making my job much more difficult.

When the pig is stunned, I use the curved knife to cut deeply through the skin and fat in a longitudinal incision from its chest along its throat, and then I thrust the knife deeply into its chest, piercing the cluster of veins and arteries above its heart. Again, this ensures a speedy death and a thorough bleed.

I can then leave it to my assistants to hang and butcher the animal for our consumption. Everyone in Erleichda is rostered from time to time to be my assistant, because without this process, Erleichda could not survive.

In assisting, and ensuring that the killing proceeds as humanely and quickly as possible, we pay the same respect to the animals we kill as do many hunting societies. Like them, we kill to survive, and we feel a bond with the animals that die that we might live.

Nor do we delegate the killing to others, to slaughtermen we can denigrate, pretending that we are not responsible for the killing. We have this belief: How can you respect life if you pretend that death does not exist? How can you stop the killing, if you avoid your responsibility for the slaughter?