- I've discovered a dead something
in the middle of the field,
and it now,
for the first time has become real
that we're about to kill birds.
More than 23 million chickens are slaughtered
in the United States...
Every day.
We visited a family farm to learn about
poultry harvesting techniques.
- We're here at Gone Straw Farms.
We raise approximately 10,000 birds, give or take.
You get such a great reaction out of people
after they consume something that you spent so much effort
raising and keeping safe.
I hope we can enlighten some folks on
the process of actually killing your own food.
- I love animals.
My Instagram is all cats.
- I'm not someone who necessarily kills things.
- Who knows, maybe I'll be
a vegetarian tomorrow, or something.
- I don't want to do this,
but I think it'll be a good educational experience.
I want to know, am I okay with this?
- They're huge!
You want us to pick one of those up?
- Um, these guys are like 10 weeks old,
and we do multi-age farming here.
- We could...
These are ones that we could kill and eat?
- No, you would--
I mean, if you wanted a Cornish hen,
instead of 'kill,' we'll call it 'harvest' them.
- 'Harvest' feels better than...
- Yeah, it does, it's all part of that...
- Killing is something I'd do because, like,
you owe me money, or you've scorned my family,
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- or I have a blood debt to settle.
This is like, this is, I gotta eat.
- I'll take you inside that little plastic thing there.
Those are actually five days old.
Okay, these are for your shoes.
- Okay.
- Put those on.
It's a little bio-security.
- Chicken, hi little guy.
(indistinct speech)
- (laughing) Oh, look at them run around!
- [man] It kinda smells strong, like hair dye.
- [Reese] Walk with your feet close to the ground.
They will not hurt you.
- [Gabby] I have taxidermy ducklings
that kinda look like this.
- It feels really weird to pick something
that you know you're going to kill.
- It's just arbitrary, I'm just like, yeah, you!
- Alright, I'm good.
- Gabby knows, Gabby knows.
- Really? Ya'll are good?
Like how are you good right now?
- Because I'm not gonna build it up!
- [Reese] Really fast!
- Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Sorry! Sorry!
- I'm sorry, little baby.
- (screams) Okay, sorry.
- [Gabby] Oh my God, he's so fat!
- I chose a fatty.
- Don't move, don't move, okay, okay, we're okay.
- We're gonna go put 'em in the cage,
take 'em up to the harvest station, and
do the deed.
- I took my rings off,
like I would for a bar fight.
- This'll be the final stage for the bird,
as far as him being around.
We're gonna place him in the cone, upside down.
- Where my parents are from in El Salvador,
they do like the same thing,
where they hang 'em upside down,
and they, like, slit their throat,
and that's kind of like the way of the land,
but it's still really sad.
- You want to get in here, Reese?
(soft chatter)
- What's a shame is that,
when we die, we won't become someone's tasty meal.
At least their death is serving a greater purpose.
- You don't want to cut through feather,
but you just find a spot.
You do this side,
and then you do the same thing this side.
You'll feel the blood rush down your hand,
and that's when you know you did it right.
- Alright, like harder, like?
- About that, yeah.
There, see?
- [Reese] There. - [cutter] Now what do I do?
- [Reese] Let go.
- Ohhhhh.
- [Reese] There's a hose over there.
The chicken is already gone.
Now as we're talking right now,
she's gone.
- We don't need to watch that.
I feel like my response to these kind of things is to just,
to numb myself emotionally,
and not really allow myself to,
feel?
Is that what robots say?
- Ahh, that was a lot of blood.
- It's so weird, the instinct to be like,
it's okay, buddy, it's okay.
- Umm hmm.
- [Gabby] Damn, buddy.
After slaughter, the feathers are loosened
with hot water and plucked with a machine...
- [Reese] It's hot, keep going.
Hold on to the legs, and go all the way in.
It only takes a few seconds.
- Why is THIS the part I don't like?
- [Reese] And then when the chicken is done,
you just pull the head off.
- Oh my God, warning next time, warning!
- Up and in.
- Up and in? Ohhhh.
- Gabby come help us.
- Because we're city folk, we brought
Trader Joe's barbecue sauce.
Isn't it super weird that that was
the chicken that we picked out of the house, like
a couple hours ago?
- Hey, keep painting, keep painting,
you're doing great.
- [All] Oh, man, yeah.
- This chicken is delicious.
It tastes fresher,
maybe because I saw it die.
- Don't take your food for granted.
Understand what it takes to harvest it,
and get it on your plate.
- I don't know that I'm gonna leave here
vegetarian, or vegan,
but I definitely am gonna
think about it more.
Gone Straw Farms raises 100% grass-fed chickens.
Animals in this video were raised according to
global animal partnership standards.
Less than 2% of slaughtered animals in the U.S.
are raised using these guidelines.
- Mine's so cute and little compared to ya'll's.
- It feels rude to smile during this.
- I know, I'm not smiling.