Butchering in the Driveway
 

Read this and had to chuckle. Maybe I am different but I think it this was my neighbor, I would go over and ask if I could help in exchange for a couple steaks.

Police called after man butchers cow in his driveway

Police called after man butchers cow in his driveway

By Tim Gurrister
Standard-Examiner staff
Tue, 09/06/2011 - 11:47pm
OGDEN -- Charges may ensue for an Ogden man who startled the neighbors by butchering a cow in his driveway over the weekend.

Police were called to the scene at 1:44 p.m. Sunday after the cow's owner began harvesting the animal. A patrolman was responding to a caller who saw a cow being trailered to the home in the 2700 block of Gramercy Avenue.

The caller then reported hearing the cow's audible mooing, followed by what sounded like a gunshot, said Police Lt. Troy Burnett. Then the mooing stopped.

The patrolman's report said when he arrived at the scene a half-block above Monroe Boulevard, "the cow was in the process of losing its head," Burnett said.

The man sawing at the animal's neck, the owner of the beef, denied shooting the cow on the premises, telling the officer the animal had been dispatched outside the city limits.

The officer took the information and filed a report that will be screened by the city attorney's office for possible charges, Burnett said.

"I assume the patrolman had them make arrangements to do the butchering out of plain view," he said.

"It boggles my mind," Burnett said. "It's not illegal, but it's absurd that people would think slaughtering a cow in their driveway is OK. Maybe on the west side of the county on one of the farms. But in the middle of a high density residential area?"

If evidence confirms the person shot the cow on-site, a charge could be filed of discharging a firearm within the city limits, he said.

Other possible violations could include disorderly conduct or health code violations, he said, the latter question which will be referred to the Weber-Morgan Health Department.

The family reporting the unusual bovine demise called their children indoors before calling police, suspecting something unusual taking place, Burnett said.

If any children had witnessed the butchering, and become upset, that could possibly constitute disorderly conduct, said Burnett and Mike Junk, Ogden city's senior prosecutor.

Junk said disorderly conduct includes language of behavior creating "public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm."

Junk said he hadn't been forwarded the case yet as of Tuesday, but said his review would also include the state's animal cruelty statute. "There are a lot of possibilities."

Lori Buttars, spokeswoman for Weber-Morgan Health Department, said the department had not yet been contacted by police about the cow case.

"We have not started that process," she said. "But we'll work with police as needed." The department had received at least three media calls about the case, she said.

The health department would likely be involved if the meat of the animal was sold without the proper permit, or if complaints surfaced about debris from the slaughter left out to decompose, she said.

Disposal of the carcass would be under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Agriculture, Buttars said.

speechless

The authorities should explain to the man that it's not cool to butcher animals in the driveway - have a little consideration for the neighbors, etc., and that should be the end of official involvement.

Heck Ive cut up sharks I've caught in my driveway.... it would usually draw a crowd as many people have never seen a 300# Mako up close..

And I clean and filet the cow bass I catch in an outdoor sink that I have...

A 1000#? cow is pushing the envelope a bit though...If the guy did shoot the cow in his driveway, that might be a concern.

They talk about disturbing the children. They live in a farming community. It has not been that long ago that most families slaughtered their own dinner.

On a trip to Paris, I left my hotel every morning to see the butcher shop across the street getting their morning delivery. It consisted of whole cows, pigs, etc.

I think people need to get a little perspective.

They don't grow like this?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1315522902.jpg

What ? meat isn't grown on styrofoam trays??

DARN YOU TOBRA!! beat my previous post by 10 seconds!

Everyone loves a steak, no one wants to see where it came from.

Buncha pussies

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I would have probably went to see if he needed any help and would of hoped to score a little meat.

Lol John, made me think of O'Brother Where Art Thou? "Oh George, not the livestock!"

At least it wasn't the horse in the driveway.

I could be worse. The guy could have been muslim and just cut it's throat and let it bleed to death in his driveway :(

Higgins once pointed out, and as a country boy myself I noticed the wisdom, that young people today might be regarding violence and other life-and-death matters as trivial because they do not understand the visceral gravity of mortal existence. Hunting game teaches you this. You kill something, and it's dead. You remove its guts and cut it into slices. Pretty eye-opening, if you've never actually participated.

As far as this fellow goes, I hope there are not charges filed and I suspect he will also avoid discharging a firearm within city limits.

In my neighborhood as a child, somebody strung a de-caped bear by the wrists across the front of his carport. Spooky, how human it looked, albeit large-chested and short-legged.

I sure hope they don't come after me for slicing the heads off carrots next!!!

Well........ if they heard it moo and moan, it still had blood. If this guy started butchering this half ton beast in the driveway you can bet the gutters were running red.

PorscheGal, is that what you mean by getting a little perspective? By watching a bloody slaughter across the street? If you want your children to know where their meat comes from, take them to a farm and cut the head off a turkey or something, OK?

Don't do this in the street. That's just barbaric.

a friend of mine witnessed the complete gutting and meat arranging of a goat, on a kitchen table, inside the apartment in a complex...the goat had been dead for half an hour or so...
That’s how his neighbor of African origin does it.
He said once he was done, you'd never would had known what happen, clean up good. Except for the smell...it lingered.

:D

Sorry but "everyone" is a bit of a wide brush.

There are a few of us on the forum who have butchered before and it does not bother us one bit where it came from.

BTW, it was not grown in a white styrofoam tray...

Joe A

i'm all in when it comes to fresh meat..but that man was a bit inconsiderate.

not everyone is OK with it..
i once let a tarp come loose over a dead deer. some dad flipped me off..(in front of his kids in the backseat, btw)..i pulled over and secured the tarp. when it comes to this kinda stuff, you base your decisions on the person you may offend..not the cool country folks.

not so sure my "first move" would be to remove the head. weird.

Vash, your story reminds me of a visit from a friend during hunting season.
He pulled up in his old beat up 80s pickup with a cow elk and a couple of white tails in the back with their legs sticking up in the air.
That got the neighbors talking!
At least we didn't butcher them in the yard!

Agreed Joe. I worked at a slaughter house one summer in Iowa when I was about 15 years old. Had to prove myself on the chicken line before they let me outside with the big boys. Great summer job.

My wife got really annoyed when a skinned a rattlesnake on the kitchen counter using her kitchen shears to split it up the underside.

So it's not just an African thing? Amazing.

My dad lives in Ann Arbor, MI, a decidedly liberal college town. A few years ago, he shot a nice 8 point buck on the last day of the season. He brought it home, and hung it in the backyard from a maple tree. Its a pretty open area, and I'm sure the neighbors just about fell over when they saw it. You can take the man away from the hills, but you cant get the hills out of the man.

Me too!

I know nothing about butchery and would find it interesting; plus, if I ever get to go to a Letterman show, I'd have a leg up if he did his 'Know your cuts of meat' bit.

Let's see...would I rather have a neighbor who butchered a cow in his driveway every couple of months,

or a neighbor who owned a hog...

with straight pipes, that he rode to work every morning at 5:00 a.m.? :)

Well that stirred up an old memory! Somewhere, in an old family photo album, is a black and white, Kodak box camera snapshot that my dad took of a gaggle of neighbors, gathered around my grandfather standing in his driveway with a shark he'd brought back to Pennsy from one of his fishing trips to New Jersey.

It was before I was born and when I saw the pic, at about age five, I asked my dad and he told me my grandfather cut it up in the driveway to eat. I remember asking "people eat sharks?!" :D

Not everyone loves a steak.
I dont eat any meat, and find it sad the way man treats animals.
Good point that no one wants to see where it comes from.
Why not take your kids to have a look?
Just my opinion, not out for an argument. :)

..

Where we live, during hunting season you will see guys butchering deer out side all the time. We do about 10 deer a season in my neighbor's garage with the doors open if the weather is right. All in full view from the road. Some other neighbors will stop over to see how we did, but I'm sure there are others who are disgusted by it. At least I know my kids know where dinner came from since a very young age.

When I say perspective, I mean that all over the world the slaughter for dinner is not necessarily hidden from the children for their protection. It is the way life is. You eat meat, it comes from an animal. Maybe it's different for where you live, but here in the South hunters are more common than not. I grew up seeing deer slaughtered and cleaned in the yard. Most Kitchens are not big enough to do the job(as the guy's in the story probably is). I guess your definition of barbaric and mine is different.

+1

I watched a episode on Masterchef where they had a truck full of apples, and they had to slice and dice 'em up. Then they brought in another truck...that had a chicken. You should of seen some of those poor yuppie faces at the thought that cutting up a live chicken was their next project. How'd they get into cooking meat????

I do not think butchering a dead animal for meat is something to hide all the kids from. I know what I'm eating when I eat meat. I knew someone with pigs in their back yard, they had some great sausages in the their freezer/fridge. However, I tend to stay away from pork knowing the food quality that pigs eat for themselves.

People live in a residential neighborhood for a reason. Whether this stuff is obvious or not, whether other cultures deal with the issues or not, generally people in a residential neighborhood don't want to see or smell how sewage is processed, nor how garbage is dealt with, nor experience livestock being slaughtered or butchered. It is not unreasonable for a complaint to be issued or for appropriate charges to be filed. If you have neighbors and you burn your trash, have loud parties, park in a thoughtless manner, or butcher livestock in plain view, don't be surprised when they complain. If you want to process meat, you need to find an appropriate location out of plain view. If that means you can't kill and butcher cows in your driveway, you need to relocate if that is your aim in life. It is not unreasonable for neighbors to expect hunters to skin and quarter their kills in the woods and process the carcasses indoors. Perhaps our society is too sheltered, but transforming a living sentient animal into food is unpleasant, and it is ok for people to want to avoid that aspect of life in their own homes.

Where I live locals were told to remove deer from a swing set that they had hanging. One hour north where I hunt it is expected to see deer/moose or any other game hanging. It is almost like an invitation to come in and have a drink. We can talk about the hunt and who else in the area did well.

Personally I am proud of the fact that I could exist if all hell broke loose.

I wasn't saying that the meat had to be "processed" indoors totally out of sight. I'm going on the assumption that the animal was slaughtered right there in the driveway. I'm also going on an "assumption" the driveway was prominent to the street and neighbors.

I'll stand on barbaric if both both assumptions are fact.

Butchering a large animal brings forth some logistical issues that are not really compatible with an urban neighborhood. A cow is 50% meat when it's butchered.

So if it weighted 1,000 pounds live, that means 500 pounds is guts, skin, horn, hooves, lower leg bones etc. That's 500 pounds of quickly rotting stuff that needs to be disposed of. One should probably not put it in the garbage can for a couple of days for curbside pickup...

Then there is alot of blood. I mean ALOT. If you do this in the driveway, then you wash the blood down the curbs into the sewer. You'll find that it takes about 16 seconds to start drawing flies quickly followed by maggots. If it's summer and there's no water in the sewer, you've just stunk up the whole street and drawn every fly for about a 3 mile radius.

I have no issues with butchering animals - humanely. I"ve butchered my turkeys and chickens. It's messy and stinky. We have the butcher take care of the cattle. I would not have done this at my urban residence. Took care of it out at the rural property.

There's a time and place for everything. An urban yard/driveway is not the place to butcher a cow.

angela

I have to agree 100%

I have no problem with what he did but he did it in the wrong place.

I wonder if the home owners board will modify their CC&Rs so that it doesn't happen again. :)