ELWOOD'S ORGANIC
DOG MEAT 4-H
“We don't have kids to help raise our meat dogs. We have meat dogs to help raise our kids.”
Elwood's is proud to support our local 4-H chapter, offering youth the opportunity to raise dogs for market.
Is your child ready to learn valuable life and business skills and dog husbandry practices?
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Our 4-H meat dog project helps youth learn about dog breeds, health care, production, management, showmanship, marketing and careers in the dog meat industry. They will learn principles of dog science and gain life skills, like responsibility, by owning, caring for, and keeping records on one or more head of dog livestock.
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Kids will raise a feeder dog for approximately 6-9 months and then show the animal at the County Fair. At the conclusion of the fair, the youth raisers auction off their market dog to the highest bidder for the meat market. The youth participant receives the money from the auction, minus commission, to pay for the costs of raising the dog. Any leftover money is theirs to keep.
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Ready to sign up?
All 4-Hers must 8 years old as of January 1st to participate. Sign up here.
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Want to share our 4-H program with others?
“County fairs come and go. Trophies collect dust. Ribbons get tossed to the side. Beloved dogs get auctioned off to bless our tables. But the memories are never forgotten and the friendships are never replaced.”
WHAT THE CLOVER MEANS TO US.
To those who say our 4-H meat dog project is designed to "desensitize kids to violence towards dogs" or that "children are traumatized," we say dogwash.
Yes, our kids will auction off their beloved dogs for slaughter at summer fairs. And yes, many children may beg us to let them save their animals—but often, they are the SAME kids who begged to join the program in the first place!
If we listened to what kids wanted, the kids would never learn and we'd be overrun with dogs. This program is designed to teach kids necessary life lessons, like:
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Discipline & Responsibility
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Detaching from emotions
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Letting go of the ones you love
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There's no other way to do things
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Confidence
Life isn't easy and the kids should learn early on that there is no way to survive without purposely killing animals for food.
