Rosey,
I'm so sorry for your dilema. I understand completely, I've had my fair share of losing chickens. I currently have over 60 so if I lost a few now its more like a hunt game. Who did it and how can I get it stopped sorta thing.

Well I have a story for you... Some hunter killed a large feral pig that had a tiny baby. They grabbed the baby and started to raise it for food. My husband (fish and game) gets a call that a "wild" pig was tearing things up at a residence and respond right away. Well what happened was the baby was a little larger now (about three months old) and was chasing kittens and eating them. The wife of the hunter was freaking out so she called hubby. When he got there the pig had killed all the little kittens this family was raising. Hubby brings the piglet home.... long story but you get what I'm talking about. You can't trust pigs, they are very inteligent and will eat almost anything and kill things just to get them out of there way if they are bored. I have other stories... sorry for you dilema.

Sorry about your rooster, pigs eat smaller animals. Once I has wire around my hog pen to keep the chickens out of the pig pen, pig scraps were juat too good. The chickens stuck their heads in the pen to get what they could, I came home to three headless hens. you are going to eat the pig so I guess it is the circle of life.

You've learned the same valuable lesson that most of us have who think that we're doing the right thing when we first start out by "free ranging" our chickens. If it wasn't the pigs or the stray dogs, it soon would have been the raccoons, foxes, owls, coyotes, etc, etc. Bottom line, they're not safe unless they're in a secure pen.

This may or may not help. I myself can't eat anything i have looked in the eye. Its a quirk I know. S anyway I totally understand why you would feel weirded out. But if you feel this way now, think how it will be when you have to kill it yourself. I have read many stories on here about families that started out raising their own "food" to eat then they get attached. *sigh* its a real dilema.

Sorry about your Roo. and good luck with all the rest.

CI

Too bad about your rooster, Rosey. I didn't know pigs would kill other animals, though I know from experience they are very intelligent (picture me trying to put the dog's leash on a 200 lb sow that dug a tunnel under the outdoor pen so I can keep her from runnig down the road - it gets better, but that's another story ;))

So, I'm wondering if you are upset that the pigs killed the rooster or upset by the fact that you have to eat these pigs? It's one of those life-lessons, like patrick said.

We've been raising beef, pork, chicken, and eggs for the past few years (not all at once, necessarily). My oldest son (17) has some issues about eating this stuff, but I keep reminding him that our animals are not factory farmed like the stuff in the stores and that they all lead a pretty darned good life. We also know exactly what they've been eating and how they were killed - quickly and humanely. We employ a local butcher to do the processing (beef and pork) and buy the young animals from local farmers, so we are contributing to our local rural economy.

Yes, they are cute and you can get somewhat attached, but we try to keep it in perspective. I'd sooner look my beef in the eye and know where it came from than not. I hope this makes things easier for you (it's sort of working for my son, but he still refuses to eat our own eggs most of the time - go figure!).

Thanks for the replies. I'm not upset about eating the pigs. Actually, we're planning on putting them in the freezer soon.

The pigs killing the rooster is what had me upset.

From the beginning we've made it a point to not get attached to the pigs or chickens. We don't consider them to be pets and although we treat them well, we've gone out of our way not to form an "emotional" connection. That's what our dogs, cats, and goose are for. The roo was the only one we developed an "attachment" to and I think that happened only because he was easy to identify and my kids gave him a name.
I have to admit that my 9 year old daughter's response when I told her about the roo's death really surprised me. She cried for a minute then said "Is it time for us to eat those pigs yet?"

Balsam, we feel the same about raising our own food. We know what they're fed, we know they are healthy and that they are treated humanely.

My kids think it's cool that our eggs come from our very own chickens. The only person I'm even remotely worried about having a problem when it comes to eating chicken or pork we've raised is myself. I'll be ok though. I love meat too much to become a vegetarian. :)