I helped butcher out stock animals when I was much younger. Beef, swine, chickens, and a few goats. The method and procedures in the article will work fine. But I do want to reiterate the need for a hoist, preferably with a mandrel. Makes things much easier. Much, much, much easier. And cleaner. Much, much cleaner. And not nearly as back-ache-causing. Not at all as nearly back-ache-causing. Your arms and hands will still hurt, but not quite as much, as it will take less time, and the cutting will be much more efficient.
If possible, have a 'butchering' or processing area where the butchering is pretty much always done. It is better if it is both out of sight, preferably hearing, and, if possible, down hill and down wind from the prevailing winds. Some animals can sense what is going on, and they will become a bit agitated if an animal is butchered near them, especially if it is the type.
A second reason to have a specific place is so you can keep everything there, and not have to be transporting too and from. If you can construct a shed, with a covered outside work area with concrete floor, all the better. The concrete floor can have a drain to carry wash water, and what blood that might not make it into the collection tubs, to a disposal pit.
And, with the overhead protection, rain, snow, and direct (hot) sunshine, nor lack of sunshine at all, will not prevent the butchering. As well as lights, good lights as you want to see clearly everything on the outside of every animal, as well as what comes out of that animal. You do not want to wind up catching something or contaminating usable items for failure to see something on the skin, or a growth or inflammation or whatever on or in the animal.
Plus, you can have a work counter to make some things easier, with a sink. Other specialty work areas to do various procedures that are much easier done at the time, and where the butchering is being done.
Now, if the butchering shed also has a chilling room, cooled with a refrigeration unit or with ice from your ice house, so much the better. That way you can simply roll the hanging pieces into the chilling room on an overhead trolley with meat hooks.
I did not have time to read the entire article the way I usually do, but I imagine the author included all the standard cautions about wearing quality rubber gloves, eye protection, a mask, and protective apron or Tyvek suit, along with the mandatory rubber boots.
I am not sure if a butchering location first-aid kit was listed. It can be a very important part of the gear. Sharp knives = cuts. Dull knives = cuts and stabs. Meat cleavers, axes, hatchets, and meat saws = more ways to loose your own blood, those around you, and wind up with a painful and potentially dangerous wound. Have a first-aid kit with the items needed to treat minor to major cuts, stabs, and even really nasty wounds from a misdirected swing or a glancing blow from an ax. Stainless steel mesh or Kevlar gloves can help lower the risks.
If you can, get some practice now, even if it is sweat equity on a farm that does its own butchering for family. It can be difficult for animal lovers to see the process. And, just as bad, if not worse for many, the smell. It will smell. Some are not foul smells exactly, though several are, and they are the worst. But some things simply have a smell that a person is not exposed to unless processing meat animals.
And for this reason, if possible, have a shower in the butchering shed. It is much better to get the blood, gore, and smell of your body, and especially out of your hair, before you go inside the home at the end of the day and your three year old runs up to give you a hug and a kiss.
The author's recommended killing method for a hog is to stun the animal with a .22 rimfire round to the head, and then a slice through the jugular. I am sure that will practice that will work. He obviously can do it. And it is more humane. Maybe.
It is not the way we did it, right or wrong. There were three common ways to kill a pig for butchering back when I was doing it. One, if the people did not particularly care about processing the brain, then a .32 ACP into the skull at the base of the neck would kill it, and not do too much damage to the parts of the brain usually process for eating.
Another way was the traditional way it was done in slaughter houses in many places before the electrical shock system became common. That was the concussing hammer method. Men with strong arms, using a heavy sledge hammer, would give the animal a strong blow to the forehead of a pig, which was being held steady in a guide by two other pretty strong men. When the pig went down, the rear legs were either looped with rope and hoisted, or meat hooks on a mandrel were inserted, the pig hoisted, and the throat cutter did his job.
The last way was to grab the pig, loop a pair of ropes attached to a mandrel to the rear legs, and hoist the squealing, squirming pig into the air. One person would steady the hoisted pig, and another would slit the throat. It took only a very few seconds before the pig was dead, with it have been 'out of it' well before that.
The following is a list of some of the items that might be useful to those that envision meat processing in their future:
Butchering shed w/butchering & cleaning tools & equipment
rubber boots
rubber gloves
rubber apron
breathing masks
hoisting A-frame
animal hoist w/leg spreader bar & tendon hooks
stunning/concussing hammer
throat knife
scaling knife
skinning knives
skinning pliers
skinning pincers
gutting knives
boning knives
filleting knives
splitting axe
splitting chisel & hammer
bone saw
sharpening files, stones, & steels
compressed air connection & alternate foot pump
cutting block/board & stand
rinsing tubs, buckets & pans
blooding/gutting collection tubs
meat, fat, & organ collection tubs, pails & pans
hide collection tubs
waste collection tubs
TWP, believe me, domestic hogs do not always stand s till to be killed, either.
Just my opinion.
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