[TheCaptain]

How does everyone dispatch their turkeys? Last year I took them off to be done but I'm considering doing them my self this year. I use the broomhandle method on the chickens - does anyone do any different?

[Sylvia]

I use an electric stunner. Don't laugh (or you can if you like ) but this is what I do. From the time they hatch I sing to them when I feed them, the same song every day. I sing to them when I catch them up the evening before slaughter and I sing to them whilst I'm hanging them upside down and doing the deed. I can honestly say I haven't had one bird panic.
When I do other people's I obviously don't sing and encounter widespread panic which is not nice for me or for the birds I'm killing.
Mad or not?? You can answer honestly.

[TheCaptain]

No, I think that's awesome 

Dispatch day for any of my animals is always the hardest for me, and I always feel physically sick a couple of days before it is done or if I'm taking animals off to the abattoir - anything to minimise to distress to the animal is a good thing.

I think my singing would add more distress to the situation though.

[Sylvia]

I dare say a bit of poetry would do

[SallyintNorth]

No, I think that's awesome 

Dispatch day for any of my animals is always the hardest for me, and I always feel physically sick a couple of days before it is done or if I'm taking animals off to the abattoir - anything to minimise to distress to the animal is a good thing.

I think my singing would add more distress to the situation though.

Hear hear.  It's inane chatter for me - if I tried to sing the same song it wouldn't sound the same twice, but rabbiting on clearly all sounds the same to BH and is what I use for calming all our livestock.