The Horrors of chicken pulao

[IvNoName]

Back home, even in cities, everyone kept chickens in their backyards. We always had chickens, and how those chickens helped with chicken pulao is the subject of this post.

Whenever there was some occasion and a chicken needed to be killed and cooked, it was the job of us kids to chase a particular chicken and take it to the local butcher.

Catching a chicken is never easy so first we'd chase the chosen chicken, then we carry it to the local butcher. He'd take the wings of the chicken and put his right foot on it, then he'd take out the tongue of the chicken, touch its throat to find the right spot, and then slit its throat with one cut. After that he'd leave the chicken to bounce around, which it did very energetically in its own blood until the blood was drained and the chicken was dead. Then he'd cut the head and give us the chicken to take home - he did not charge any money. We'd hold the chicken by its feet and bring it back. Then the chicken would be plucked and cleaned and cooked.

For us kids, who would watch the whole killing very carefully, it was normal. But now, due to western degeneration, when I think about it, it was a nasty business that should not have been given to the kids.

[IvNoName]

In Afghanistan keeping pigeons was not considered something respectable so we were never allowed to keep pigeon. Another reason for not keeping pigeons was that it can be unlucky and some other superstitious nonsense.

Eventually we managed to keep pigeons, and I build even a coop for them, not a good one but functional. Anyway, after sometime they had enough and the pigeons had to go. They even destroyed the pigeon house that I had built.

We had no choice but to sell the pigeons. So, we sold the pigeons but one of them we sold to a guy who killed it and cooked it.

[IvNoName]

I posted this picture in a different thread, but it belongs here. I took this photo in early 2012 and with it the whole question of animals and how they're treated, not to mention my own memories of seeing cruelty against animals back home begun to preoccupy me.

[IvNoName]

During spring most of the kids used to make or buy a slingshot and hunt small birds. I never killed any birds even though I might have had a slingshot. That is something that I'm proud of.