USA Today reported recently on a self-service slaughterhouse outside Indianapolis where customers get to kill a goat or lamb for themselves. It’s like one of those pick-your-own-apples farms, except with more gore. Customers pick out the animal they want, then kill and dress it themselves.

The clientele consists primarily of observant Muslims who want to ensure that the animals they will eat are killed according to halal standards. There are also old-timers who simply want to maintain the do-it-yourself slaughter ethos of the village cultures of their youths. Most come from Indianapolis’s growing Middle Eastern, African and Asian immigrant communities. Goats are the primary product, and at $1.40 a pound live weight, apparently quite a bargain, even if you have to do most of the work yourself.

Will this catch on as another of those self-service extensions of our have-it-your-way society? Just Desserts has its doubts. Customers may like scanning their own groceries and not mind pumping their own gas, but probably will draw the line at cutting animals’ throats. There are some tasks best left to professionals.

The illustrations for FM's Just Desserts column are by Dave Clark. You can see more of his work at Clarktoons.