Kids don't like Moo's dinner and make their own (animal cruelty warning?)

I heard this story from one of my mother's co-workers some time ago.

I'll keep it relatively short...basically, co-worker Moo made dinner that her kids didn't want to eat, so rather than be a short-order cook, she told them to fend for themselves (good, a PNB, it seems) and left them to their own devices. I have no idea how old the three kids are, but I'm guessing between the ages of 7 and 12.

When Moo went and checked on them, the kids were grilling something. They managed to shoot a pigeon, pluck it, gut it, season it and were roasting it on the grill and eating it.

I'm a bit torn...on one hand, I'm impressed that these kids hunted down food (literally), cleaned and cooked a wild bird. That, and they actually fed themselves rather than sitting around whining for Mommy to make them something. Shit, I can't even shoot a soda can when I've got the barrel of the gun right up against it.

On the other hand, I ask, "Was killing an animal really necessary?" Also, where'd they get a gun? My guess is it was a BB gun, meaning they probably had to shoot the thing several times before it died. I'd also like to know where they found a pigeon because I honestly never see any around here.

Ranty CF goodness (updated 6.10.2013)
Caffeinated Childfree

That is VERY disturbing to me. Had they lived on a farm and killed a chicken, which would have been familiar and common for them, I'd understand it, but a pigeon? City kids wouldn't even be socialized or desensitized to killing their own food, so for them to murder a pigeon out of what seems like defiance to their moo rather than a true hunger is what concerns me. Little serial killers in the making, it seems. I would have been MORTIFIED if any kid I knew would have done that when I was that age and wouldn't have even CONSIDERED eating it either, let alone killing it, cutting it's head off, picking it's feathers off, and pulling it's guts out.

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If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

Also, pigeons are incubator of all the kind of pathogens know to mankid, and then some more.

But, honestly, if they wanted to eat it, it is ok for me. As long as they hadn't hurt it before, I am all for eating what you hunt. Now, mind you, killing for the sake of killing would earn the brats my wrath. But for eating... well. It is ok.

I rescued and raised two baby pigeons - Huey and Blossom - that were left abandoned by the lake near my home. I couldn't imagine killing, gutting and eating such darling birds. I know that not everyone thinks of pigeons the way I do, but I think it's kind of sickening that these kyds had the fortitude to do this.
I know I could have never committed such a bloodthirsty act, let alone EAT the thing! That is just plain sickening.
I also agree that pigeons are not exactly the healthiest, safest food to eat, unless they are raised for being eaten as squabs.

It hardly even seems practical - I doubt very much there was no other food nearby that these little tards could have eaten. And if they could find the drive in themselves to hunt down and kill an animal, then surely they could have used a fraction of that energy to boil fucking water and make pasta or something.

My first thought was that maybe one of these kids is retarded (or all of them) that they felt the need to shoot a pigeon out of the sky and eat it. It's not like they're starving in the woods and survival depended on catching and eating wildlife. As Kim said, this was definitely not a matter of killing out of hunger/survival or even a desire to "live off the land," but more an act of stickin' it to Moo to teach her a lesson about cooking stuff the pweshuses don't like. And probably a little of, "we want to kill something" so they can feel a sense of power. Gods, next thing you know, Moo will come home and these three will have a stray dog on a spit, roasting it over a fire like a pig.

Besides that, I can't imagine a pigeon being enough to feed three people. They're relatively small as far as meals go - smaller than game hens. I don't really care one way or another when people hunt for sport, but just something about a bunch of kids having the mind set of killing a bird because Mommy didn't make them a good enough dinner disturbs me. Showing no remorse in killing an animal is not a sign of good things to come. Hey, maybe when Junior's boss doesn't give him the promotion he wants, Junior will kill and eat his boss too.

Ranty CF goodness (updated 6.10.2013)
Caffeinated Childfree

Pigeons are LOADED with diseases. I doubt the little turds know that, but I wonder about the quality of moo's cooking if these kyds would rather eat pigeon than the food she made.

Cambion

Sometimes people really scare me. The sense of entitlement (Moo didn't make what we want...), the aggressive behavior (let's go out and kill something to eat...), the pack mentality (all the kids worked together to accomplish this shit...) and kids doing unnecessary things at a young age (as you asked why did they need to kill something...) has me wanting to get as far away from the unclean masses as I possibly can.

Like so many endangered species, reasonable, hard-working, level -headed people (especially CFs) have to navigate through an increasingly dangerous and insane world.

Once in a awhile I think about buying a gun for protection, but I snap back to my senses... I'm too scared of them. I'll just continue to work as hard as I can so I can move to a nicer, more secluded home.

If these kyds are the future, it's a future I want no part of.

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
Cary Grant

It's disturbing to me but I would like to ask what environment they live in. Is duh a hunter who brings home game fowl or deer after every hunting trip??? IF that's the case I can see why the kids think killing and eating something is OK. But these questions need to be asked by a damn good shrink instead of me.

ETA: I'd like to add that I hope they get sick because like others have mentioned, pigeons carry a ton of diseases.

On the one hand, true it's unnecessary for them to have killed that bird, why didn't they just eat real food, etc... And pigeons *are* unsanitary. But I'm also torn. I mean, if they were really wanting to do that just for revenge I'd think they would've, like shot a whole buttload of pigeons and let them die, and/or used the poor bird(s) to scare their mother. The fact that they killed ONE bird for the THREE of them, and actually prepared it to be comparatively edible rather than being twice as gross and thrice stupid and dumping it on the grill feathers feet and all... Maybe they'd been watching/reading one of those People survive in the Wild by Hunting and Here's A Turtle Soup Recipe, But Don't Eat Those Mushrooms, By The Way type books/shows and decided to emulate one of those methods or whatever...? Would need more info, is all, you know?

i have no idea who the Duh is or what he does (or if there's even a Duh in the picture), but if they're a family where Duh went hunting a lot, I could maybe see how they may not think much of killing an animal for food or fur or whatever. I had some friends whose father would go out in the backyard now and then and shoot a rabbit to make stew or a fox for the pelt. I'm kind of a suburban person while these people were farmers (raised cattle and poultry), so it seemed a little barbaric to me, but they were probably used to it.

On the other hand, my cousin's dad hunts for sport and took Cousin hunting at a young age. My cousin refused to shoot squirrels because he said they were too cute - deer he could handle because he grew up seeing deer heads on the walls, so I guess the level of acceptance in terms of killing certain animals varies between individuals. I know many people also consider pigeons to be a nuisance, so that could be a factor too - let's get rid of a pest while feeding ourselves. Killing two birds with one stone (no pun intended).

As said, impressed with the fact they knew how to prepare a wild bird. Where they learned how to do this, I have no idea. But still going WTF over why they felt the need to fucking shoot a pigeon like a bunch of hungry woodsmen. And knowing kids, they likely did not get sick. If an adult eats a drumstick that's undercooked by 15 seconds, they get life-threatening food poisoning with fluid explosions coming out of both ends. Meanwhile, a kid can eat his own shit and not get so much as a sniffle.

I feel so weird because I don't know if I should be more horrified or amazed - right now, it's about a 50/50 divide.

Ranty CF goodness (updated 6.10.2013)
Caffeinated Childfree

I am amazed

I draw my line at being sentient. So I don't eat dolphins, whales, elephants and some kind of apes. Period. Everything else is fair game (I have eat various weird things, I tell you).

We also know too few to say if there was or not cruelty involved. If I had done something like that as a kyd, I would remember it as a cool moment, for sure

EDIT:
Also, of course, endangered animals are off limits. You don't eat them u.u

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t.
I am amazed

I draw my line at being sentient. So I don't eat dolphins, whales and some kind of apes. Period. Everything else is fair game (I have eat various weird things, I tell you).

We also know too few to say if there was or not cruelty involved. If I had done something like that as a kyd, I would remember it as a cool moment, for sure

Elephants and big cats could probably be added in with dolphins, whales and apes...

And I don't know what to think about the situation other than that it was almost certainly an outdoorsy white-trash family with a moo who couldn't cook well or safely, loaded firearms kept in the house, diseased wildlife abounding, and lighter fluid or gasoline, briquets & matches kept by the grill, and the whole famblee is at risk for Darwin Awards.

It makes PERFECT sense if she was forcing a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle on them.

But if she made them pork chops or something...probably WTF...but it is impressive.

Isn't squab a pigeon? Squab's a delicacy.

And as cold as it sounds, this is damn impressive! I mean, most kids can't even be arsed to nuke a frozen pizza. These kids fucking killed, cleaned and cooked a fucking squab! I don't think these kids should be punished-they should get a trophy for not being a bunch of entitled, lazy losers...

Exactly where did this take place?

Kentucky?
Tennessee?
Mississippi?

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selidororous
Exactly where did this take place?

Kentucky?
Tennessee?
Mississippi?

I'm guessing Kentucky or West Virginia myself.

This happened in Pennsylvania, so while not a backwards deep South area, we've still got a lot of hicks who like to shoot stuff in my region. Lotta white trash and welfare trash around here.

I have no idea if cruelty was involved either, so I don't know if it was a quick death or the idiots had to shoot the bird several times with whatever firearm they found before it died, or if it was even dead when they started cleaning it. I guess I just fail to see the point of the whole thing - Moo makes slop for dinner, so let's go outside and shoot a bird? I fail to see the connection. She must make some real shit if her kids would rather eat a pigeon than her cooking.

But I'm amazed that they even found a pigeon. I have honestly never seen one in this area before - we get tons of other birds (ducks, geese, cranes, bluejays, hummingbirds, etc.) but I have never seen a pigeon here. That's a mystery all by itself.

Ranty CF goodness (updated 6.10.2013)
Caffeinated Childfree

I wonder where they found a pigeon as well. I live in a mostly urban area and have never seen one. We have doves, which I guess are sort of like Pigeons, but if it was a dove they ate I would think they would have called it a dove.

I am perplexed that these kids felt they had to kill and eat a Pigeon. Was there nothing else to eat at their house? I agree that her cooking must really suck if the kids felt this was their only avenue for dinner.

Moo says "the kids didn't like what I made for dinner", but who's to say she made anything??? Were the kids made to feed themselves in the only way they could think of???

For the sake of curiosity I looked at Youtube and found any number of videos that show you how to pluck a chicken. This is the first one that came up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAJh9ehtTmA I imagine it's the same process to pluck any bird.

Pigeons are something I've found to be everywhere, regardless of where you live. When I was working in downtown San Antonio I used to sit in Alamo Plaza and feed the pigeons on my lunch breaks. It was fun to piss off the stupid tourists.

Sorry to go off topic for a moment. Back to our regularly scheduled What the fuckery.

I don't see what's wrong with killing an animal to eat it, unless you take the perspective that it is wrong to eat any animal. If you eat meat, why are you bothered by this? When you're eating a steak, someone killed a cow on your behalf. If you're bothered by that thought, you should probably consider becoming a vegetarian.

Now, hunting for "sport" with no intention of eating the meat is something that disgusts me, because killing should not be a form of entertainment. But that isn't what they did.

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Cambion
This happened in Pennsylvania, so while not a backwards deep South area, we've still got a lot of hicks who like to shoot stuff in my region. Lotta white trash and welfare trash around here.

I have no idea if cruelty was involved either, so I don't know if it was a quick death or the idiots had to shoot the bird several times with whatever firearm they found before it died, or if it was even dead when they started cleaning it. I guess I just fail to see the point of the whole thing - Moo makes slop for dinner, so let's go outside and shoot a bird? I fail to see the connection. She must make some real shit if her kids would rather eat a pigeon than her cooking.

But I'm amazed that they even found a pigeon. I have honestly never seen one in this area before - we get tons of other birds (ducks, geese, cranes, bluejays, hummingbirds, etc.) but I have never seen a pigeon here. That's a mystery all by itself.

Near Pittsburgh? Sounds like a Pittsburgh thing...

It was probably one shot. You don't get much if you shoot more...

My mom would occasionally make something for dinner that the three of us didn't like, granted it wasn't often (my mom is an awesome cook) but on the nights when dinner wasn't appealing, I don' think it would have occurred to my brother or my sister and I to hunt and kill our own dinner.

@zatoth, nope, though I admit pigeons in the burgh are fucking dumb. They are the only birds I've ever seen become road kill. Nope, this is northern PA in a half-suburban, half-rural area.

And if my mother made stuff I didn't like, I'd sooner just go rooting in the pantry for something I'd prefer. My first thought would never be, "Hmm, I'm gonna go outside and kill something for dinner." And I have nothing against eating animals, I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian - but as said, why'd they feel the need to do that? A pigeon seems like a random choice (and a whole lot of unnecessary effort) when I can bet you anything there was chicken in the freezer.

Ranty CF goodness (updated 6.10.2013)
Caffeinated Childfree

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Cambion
And if my mother made stuff I didn't like, I'd sooner just go rooting in the pantry for something I'd prefer. My first thought would never be, "Hmm, I'm gonna go outside and kill something for dinner." And I have nothing against eating animals, I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian - but as said, why'd they feel the need to do that? A pigeon seems like a random choice (and a whole lot of unnecessary effort) when I can bet you anything there was chicken in the freezer.

I don't deny that it was a strange choice, but they could have watched a nature show where someone ate pigeon, or read a 19th century cookbook, or something - there are reasons why it might occur to a kid while an adult would be thinking about how disease-ridden urban pigeons are.

At least they showed more ability to actually accomplish something than most of the entitled whiney brats you see today, who don't even show enough initiative to get off the train tracks when a train is coming.

I guess for me, I may enjoy a steak...but I don't have the guts to actually go and slaughter a steer myself.

I raised baby pigeons and have a bit of an affinity towards them. I don't expect anyone else to feel that way, but I have a love for the birds because I raised two abandoned babies and they were very special and dear to me.

I know people who have worked in slaughter houses (my cousin's husband comes to mind) who became psychologically damaged after working in one for only six months. He is a sort of tough guy...not a pussy by any stretch of the imagination. He drove a motorcycle across Canada and wasn't exactly easily squicked out by things. It was awful, according to him. He had to quit because he couldn't take the horror of what he had to deal with every day. He is still a meat-eater as far as I know.

Eating something that's already dead, and killing something, watching the life drain from its eyes...cutting its head off, gutting, skinning etc. is apples and oranges to sitting down in a nice restaurant for a porter house steak.

I guess I like my food already dead before it comes to me.