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Comment by h2odragon | Hacker News Reader

My local craigslist has people selling "butcher size" (~300lb) hogs at $100 and less; which is cheap. Processing a critter that size at home is a big task; unpleasant and exhausting and messy.

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> Processing a critter

I think we should go even farther with our euphemisms and call it "harvesting a resource".

I love meat, even though I consider killing animals unethical, which makes me a hypocrite. Still, I think the least we can do is call the process "killing an animal".

I mean if we're going to engage in silly pedantry, critter means animal.

Also, ethics aside, the comment above was referring specifically to processing, not the act of killing. Killing is comparatively fast and far less messy. Butchering/processing a 300lb carcass is where the real effort lies.

That's fair, it just sounded a bit too clinical.

I get the resistance to whitewashing, but the terminology of 'processing' seems more accurate. Killing the animal is only the beginning of the process and is generally the least time intensive. Properly butchering an animal while maintaining food safety, producing the proper cuts, etc. is a process that requires tooling and expertise.

I would hope that everyone understands that creating a final meat product involves killing, but we shouldn't trivialize the process requirements just to drive an emotional point home.

You're right, there's much more than just killing. It just felt weird to me to lump killing in with "processing", maybe "killing and processing" would have been better.

But the $100 300-pound hog being discussed a few posts up is already dead when you buy it. It's not a euphemism; it would actually be incorrect to change it to "killing and processing a foo of that size at home is a big task".

It's called processing because killing the animal is just the first step. Next you have to systematically dismantle their body and cut up the usable bits into manageable chunks, which (I'd assume) is a bulk of the work. Personally, I think the word processing is more vile in this context than simply killing. That said, I also eat meat, so I can't really say much.

what difference does it make

Makes it easier to not think about it.

that would seem to make it a good thing

Only if your goal is to not think about it.

It is called processing instead of killing because killing is a minuscule part of going from live animal to packaged meat.

As other people have alluded it is called processing as killing is one portion. We processed 100 chickens a month ago at my neighbor's house. The first step is to put two small slits in the artery on their neck while they hang upside down in a traffic cone; easy process as they don't fight or try to get out. Next, you put the dead chicken in hot water (temperature needs to be specific to not cook them), then the de-feather machine, then you cut the head/neck and feet off, then clean all the insides out, then they sit in ice water for a day or so before you package them. We don't sell them, we do this for ourselves and pack our freezers with the meat.

I haven't done larger animals from the killing but have butchered large cuts of meat. It is a time-consuming process while being physically tiring.

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