How to slaughter a chicken? (Scouts!!! Help!!!)

Okok, I hate blogging too many post per day but my son insisted I get this info for him.

He and his gang of Form One scouts are going to slaughter a chicken to earn a badge. Big bro told him that their batch broke the chicken’s neck. I go, “Oh my God, why are you all so cruel! How can you break a poor chicken head like that?”

Earlier, my 13 yrs old told me his Muslim friend need to sembelih the chicken secara halal. OK, fine. But now, his Muslim friend is not going to slaughter the chicken and it is back to my kid’s duty.

I had slaughtered plenty of chicken in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, chicken didn’t appear in markets, all bald and dead. We had to rear our own chickens. At home, only my eldest bro and I dare to do this. I had also slaughtered monitor lizards and paddy frogs, btw. And I was only about 10-12 years old, you know?

My style was
1) Catch chicken by chasing all over the kampung
2) Prepare a bowl of salt water
3) Sharpen the knife (very important to have sharp sharp knife)
4) Take chicken, use foot to step on chicken legs
5) By now, chicken know its fate so chicken will have great strength to struggle, claw and cluck in pitiful manner.
6) Left hand, hold chicken’s neck and also wings. If chicken struggle too hard, use the other foot to step on the wings.
7) Pluck some feathers from chicken neck to expose the skin
8) Hold the neck thighter, OMMMMMM, sarrrrtt.
9) Fill the bowl (step 2) with chicken blood
10) Hold for several mins. till chicken no longer struggling and bleeding.
11) Twist the neck into the wings and leave to die completely
12) Dunk in boiling water and pluck feathers
13) Cut open from bottom and remove innards (dirty job)

My son and his friends are contemplating chopping off the head. I told him this is also cruel too. Having a headless chicken running all over the camp (near Botanical Gardens)is not a pretty sight.

So questions :
1) For a Muslim, I know the head has to be severed but can they kill the chicken first by cutting off the trachea and then baru chop off the head?
2) Any seasoned scouts around to tell me if there is any other way to slaughter a chicken than what I used to do?
3) Isn’t breaking off the neck or chopping off the head in one swift blow more cruel than slicing off the air passage?
4) All ye whom have killed a chicken, please stand up.

*Many chickens are harmed in this story.*

19 thoughts on “How to slaughter a chicken? (Scouts!!! Help!!!)

  1. Actually you got it wrong. According to the Muslim way of slaughtering an animal, you have to use a very sharp knife,. Take the name of god first and then make the cut all the blood vessels in the neck usually in one go but not completely severing the head. The blood will rush out under pressure. Its similar to the Jews.
    Anyway, I have never cut a chicken myself as I am a vegetarian. šŸ˜‰

  2. back in my pasukan polis days, we slaughtered chicken ala Chinese aka Lilian’s way, coz thats the same way my kampung aunt taught me. The instructor (he’s Malay btw) would just verse out ‘Bismillah’ while cutting the throat of the chicken too. According to cikgu, no other better way unless you have the big killing machine like those in the wet market. IMPORTANT ADVICE: MUST have good tight grips of the chicken….you seriously do NOT want a headless chicken loose *shudders*

  3. Lilian, after plucking some feathers to expose the skin at the neck, feel for the 2 main veins. These veins must be cut and we Muslims did not chop off the head until the chicken really died.

  4. Ok, I hear this scary story from somewhere. The scouts will NOT given any tools to “slaughter” the chicken.

    And the most scary story start there… you must break the chicken neck with your bare hand…

    Hint : Ecstacy…….

  5. EWwwwwwwwwwww…

    I dun wanna slaughter chickens!! Gross.

    A few years back, we reared Isreal chickens, those huge, fat chickens. when their times were up, we sent them to the pakcik. He slaughtered the chickens for us. Then we stopped rearing because my mom figured out it was cheaper to buy chickens than to rear them. They ate damn a lot!!

  6. Heh..You know..there is a scout song which teaches you how to slaughter a chicken. It’s called “E-po eh tai tai”.
    I’m sure you son will know lah…hehehe…very cute wan the song..
    Oh e-po eh tai tai eh ya
    oh e-po eh tai tai eh ya
    oh e-po eh tai tai e-po eh tuki tuki (tuki tuki=knock the chicken head)
    and so it continues to eeyok eeyok meaning squeze the chicken neck
    heheh..

  7. wah…ganas oh..step on claws..step on wings!! haha! My grand uncle, grand ma and aunts used to do that a lot when I was little. Now all buy dead chicken from markets. I buy ready cut chicken in supermarkets..you know this breast fillets? kekkee

  8. oh boyyyyyyyyyyyy…sooo cruelllll..hehehe i can never do that!..hehehehe
    if i ever did that..i think i will turn myself to vegetarian..hahahahaha

  9. AS scouts .yeah, we were educated to do it like that ..but honestly . .. a headless chicken running around is scary, but not painful to the chicken. A complete chop of the head severing all nerves to the brain will eliminate the pain in one sharp blow.

    Letting it bleed will only let it suffer for some time . . .

  10. Hehhe!! sorry.. can’t help you on that.. šŸ˜‰ i’m a city gal.. šŸ˜‰ who married a country boy.. šŸ˜‰

  11. this blog certainly bring back fond memory of my childhood day in kampong where i love to help my mom do this ‘dirty and cruel’ task……
    btw – cutting/snipping the right main vein (i thot only one? bluish ) at the neck is a science indeed, and that takes lots of parctise……

    plucking the feathers is another my fav !

    last but not least is the cutting/cleaning of the internal… urhhmmmm – the warmish chicken inner parts…. !!!!

  12. with one hand holding the wings back and the neck exposed, slit the throat and throw the chicken in the bathroom. let it fly around and wash it later.

  13. My dad taught me how to slaughter chickens, goats and cows. The conditions for a halal slaughter are very simple. The main objective of a halal slaughter is to remove as much blood from the body as possible. Why? Because blood is poison [its got all that waste products from your body like urea and shit].

    Of the procedure of saying God’s name is actually a matter of putting God in your heart for whatever you do. Quite frankly, a Muslim should say bismillah before he does anything at all. But back to the chicken.

    An effective way to do that is to let the animal dia due to loss of blood. Any other death [broken neck, injured organs] will cause the blood to stagnate inside the body and eventually seeping into the flesh, poisoning it.

    How to cause an effective loss-of-blood death? First and foremost you cut off the jugular veins. These are very large veins that carry blood at high pressures as it is very near to the heart. And then you cut the windpipe to let other bodily fluids [saliva etc.] flow out.

    And then when you are done cutting these items, let it go and die by itself. When it’s no longer kicking or thrashing, then you can sever the head.

    Whatever you do after that, depends on the animal. I’m quite clueless as to how to clean a chicken, though. My mom won’t let me. Yet.

  14. Ah, I forgot. What I said above should be done with a very sharp knife. Preferably it should be one clean slice, but it’s allowed to ease the blade back and forth so long as the blade only touches the animal once, and only once.

    This is usually the case for bigger necks like cows, bulls and camels. The Arabs devised a brilliant knife that looks like a big claw. Pierce the side of the neck with the sharp tip, and with one clean curve, you can cut off all the necessary items.

  15. Chewah, I did not expect so many people who have shared the kill chicken experience with me. Nice, at least I am not so barbaric after all. Hahaha.

    Silencers – Thanks for the very detailed explanation. Now, at least we, non-Muslims, understand the process and reasons more clearly. This is so enlightening.

    li – You are hilarious, describing the warmish inner parts like it is some thrilling process. I love gathering the eggs. Nice, can make kuey teow sup.

    Lobak – Ya, last time very ganas. But now, I think I prefer being a vegetarian than killing a chicken.

    moo_t – You are right. They are not given any tool. The scouts have to bring their own.

    Adam – You are a Chinese Muslim who is a vegetarian, right?

    Cherry – Hahaha, were you a guide?
    Chrissy – Wah, pasukan polis?
    Nee shee – You are right, throw into the bathroom. Then, later, take water from well and wash.

    Sue – Tks for the tips. I thought hidup-hidup kena pancung. Now I know.

    Yuen Li – Or stuff with clorofom to pengsan then only cut? That’s how we dissect frogs in biology class.

    Eileen/jenelim/Mrs T- Ewwwws indeed. Glad we do not have to do that anymore.

    Mango – You know what does Bismillah means?

  16. 1) take chicken
    2) put chicken on federal highway
    3) u’ll have a dead chicken within no time

    šŸ˜‰

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