[Sca-cooks] Marcus, the lamb

[Marcus Loidolt]

The naturalist and teacher in me cannot help but rejoice!! At last SOMEONE is taking a sensible track here...
Yes, animals need and deserve to be treated with compassion and care, BUT that is not the same as granting them equal rights or enshrining them like gods! Animals are meant to be killed and eaten! All animals! If not by us humans, who have so altered the world that we are now responsible for such things, then by other predators and causes...same thing goes for plants and yes even ourselves...(but THAT is another topic about burial and perceptions of death!!)
 
The parents of said children presumably (yeah I know...HUMANS!!)  were aware that sendng their children to a 'FARM SCHOOL" would mean more that just a petting zoo....Pesonally I would LOVE to teach there!!
May even try to start one of those here in Indy!!
 
What I would have loved to see in the article would be a follow up, what did they do with the whole carcass..meat, skin, wool, ect...just sening the animal away to the knackers without the return and consumption doesn't really complete the teaching cycle.
 
BTW. I teach a slaughtering class to 4H kids ages 12-18 with chickens. They must come with a signed waiver AND a parent/chaperone.  We talk about the process and what to expect and then I demonstrate killing the first two/three birds and then talk them through the  plucking/cleaning process, If any feel like they want to kill, I again walk/talk them through that process, making sure they feel comfortable with every step of the way. 
In the cleaning process we talk about disection and body parts and functions, both in biology and culinary forms. The day usually ends with a chicken dinner/or everyone gets to take a bird home ready for either the freezer or the kitchen!
I find it interesting that the boys maybe very 'gung ho' on the killing part, but shy away from the dead bird...girls on the other hand are sometimes reluctant to watch or partake of the killing, but once the bird is dead rarely have a problem with the carcass!! 
I do not force anyone to participate or watch if they choose not to, well except for the parents, I make them watch whatever their child is doing!!  But as they have all been briefed before coming and have signed said waiver AND paid 50.00, I rarely have any back out.!
 
Abot/Meister Johann von Metten, OL.
Midrealm, Constellation region, Barony of Sternfeld
medieval poultrier

myspace.com/marcusjohann 
"Let Charity be your hallmark and model for all you do,
if it is not loving, don't do it, it it is loving,
let nothing stop you from doing whatever is needed!"
(St. John Neumann)
"Have no fear or doubt anything and everything you give in this life will be paid back ahundred fold in the next"