So I guess that is the origins of the word "knackered".
The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
41–50 of 75 posts
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#42For most of my life, my Mum and sister have owned horses, and unfortunately several of them have reached a state where they needed to be put down (the last two - one was due to chronic laminitis, and the last one due to old age and a pervasive respiratory issue which got drastically worse one day when we thought he was recovering). The knackerman who deal with the last pony was so good at his job, it made what was a…
This is not how my Humane Society dealt with putting down a friend of mine's dog. I've sadily had be in the room where a few animals were put down over my life. The pricy vet drug was great. My dog felt no pain. Died in a millisecond. I died a bit that day too. The worse pain I have ever felt was over a pet. My point is my Humane Society used a drug that slowly killed the animal. The animal did not look content. She…
Purely speculation but drug companies a few years ago stopped shipping the chemicals for execution by lethal injection on moral grounds - vets may have been affected by that and had to resort to less effective substances
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not how my Humane Society dealt with putting down a friend of mine's dog. I've sadily had be in the room where a few animals were put down over my life. The pricy vet drug was great. My dog felt no pain. Died in a millisecond. I died a bit that day too. The worse pain I have ever felt was over a pet. My point is my Humane Society used a drug that slowly killed the animal. The animal did not look content. She…
Purely speculation but drug companies a few years ago stopped shipping the chemicals for execution by lethal injection on moral grounds - vets may have been affected by that and had to resort to less effective substances
Pentobarbital, aka Euthasol, aka bluejuice, is a barbiturate and is what is commonly used for small animal euthanasia.
Europe imposed strict export controls on it and other drugs in 2014, but I don't think vetinary supply has been affected.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#44Here on the San Francisco Peninsula, we have a couple of veterinary services that specialize in in-home pet hospice and euthanasia: Peaceful Pathways and Restful Paws. (There may be others; these are just the two I know of.)
I hope I never have to use their services - may our dogs and cats pass away restfully in their sleep when that time comes - but I will sure choose them over going to a vet's office.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#45For most of my life, my Mum and sister have owned horses, and unfortunately several of them have reached a state where they needed to be put down (the last two - one was due to chronic laminitis, and the last one due to old age and a pervasive respiratory issue which got drastically worse one day when we thought he was recovering). The knackerman who deal with the last pony was so good at his job, it made what was a…
I used to work on a farm run by vegetarians. As the only meat eater, they all thought it should be my job to do the dirty deed when any animal required killing. One thing I learned pretty quickly was that no animal wants to die. Killing the chickens was bearable, by I came to the end of my tether when I was called upon to help in the killing of a pig. It knew it was going to die, and fought it with all its might. Left the job shortly after.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably the structure of the industry: American farms are (as I understand it) not generally family affairs and are run by big companies. In the UK there's still a heavily feudal element in terms of who owns the land, with many tenant farmers etc who won't have press offices and the like. Willing to bet it is that.
>not generally family affairs You're absolutely right in that most of the food we eat in the US is grown on a relatively small number of huge commercial farms, but interestingly enough about 80% of the ~2 million farms in the US are classified as small, which means they earn less than $350k annual revenue. That's 1.8 million small farms in the US, by comparison there are ~200,000 farms total in the UK. It's just a nu…
With more than 600,000 Mennonites in the US (this includes the Amish), it's likely that Mennonite farms alone total half (100,000) as many farms as the UK has in total.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#47For most of my life, my Mum and sister have owned horses, and unfortunately several of them have reached a state where they needed to be put down (the last two - one was due to chronic laminitis, and the last one due to old age and a pervasive respiratory issue which got drastically worse one day when we thought he was recovering). The knackerman who deal with the last pony was so good at his job, it made what was a…
I used to work on a farm run by vegetarians. As the only meat eater, they all thought it should be my job to do the dirty deed when any animal required killing. One thing I learned pretty quickly was that no animal wants to die. Killing the chickens was bearable, by I came to the end of my tether when I was called upon to help in the killing of a pig. It knew it was going to die, and fought it with all its might. Lef…
Why would the pig know if was going to die? I've seen pigs butchered on a farm. The butcher just shot then once in the forehead with a .22. Instant lights out.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to work on a farm run by vegetarians. As the only meat eater, they all thought it should be my job to do the dirty deed when any animal required killing. One thing I learned pretty quickly was that no animal wants to die. Killing the chickens was bearable, by I came to the end of my tether when I was called upon to help in the killing of a pig. It knew it was going to die, and fought it with all its might. Lef…
Why would the pig know if was going to die? I've seen pigs butchered on a farm. The butcher just shot then once in the forehead with a .22. Instant lights out.
Pigs are extremely intelligent, on par with dogs at least, and I've seen rankings that place them as high as 4th, behind only apes, dolphins, and elephants.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would the pig know if was going to die? I've seen pigs butchered on a farm. The butcher just shot then once in the forehead with a .22. Instant lights out.
Pigs are extremely intelligent, on par with dogs at least, and I've seen rankings that place them as high as 4th, behind only apes, dolphins, and elephants.
Sure pigs are intelligent but a pig that's never seen a gun before doesn't know it's going to die.
Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
>not generally family affairs You're absolutely right in that most of the food we eat in the US is grown on a relatively small number of huge commercial farms, but interestingly enough about 80% of the ~2 million farms in the US are classified as small, which means they earn less than $350k annual revenue. That's 1.8 million small farms in the US, by comparison there are ~200,000 farms total in the UK. It's just a nu…
With more than 600,000 Mennonites in the US (this includes the Amish), it's likely that Mennonite farms alone total half (100,000) as many farms as the UK has in total.
I am kind of convinced that the answer to every question “why is the US /why does the US and etc is “we have a imperial crapton of fertile land relative to population.”
It’s definitely the answer to why do we have so many small to medium farms. If you really really want to do it, anyone (with some money and a shitton of work) can buy land and try to grow things on it - this is not the case in most of the world, population density in places with farmable land tends to be too high to be generally accessible to the bulk of the population.