Butchering

Butchering is performed automatically at a butcher's shop, but only if there is an animal specified to be butchered or a suitable carcass on a stockpile somewhere, whether created by hunting or by battle.

Butchering of livestock is done by using z, enter on the Animals tab, and then hitting b to mark an animal for slaughter. Their status will say "Ready for slaughter." Animals taken as pets by someone cannot be slaughtered, which poses a problem for reducing the number of animals, or trying to get food.

Technical information

Any living animal's corpse may be collected and butchered, by default. It cannot be hunted and butchered if defined as "NOT_BUTCHERABLE" in the raw object data. If defined as "BUTCHERABLE_NONSTANDARD", it may not be butchered if killed in combat, but may be slaughtered as described above.

When an animal is butchered, it will always produce the following:

• One skull, regardless of the number of heads it has, unless the animal is defined as not producing a skull. Look for "NOSKULL" in the raw object data.
• One skin, unless the animal is defined as having no skin. Look for "NOSKIN" in the raw object data.
• No fat, unless the animal is defined as having a specific amount of fat. In practice, most animals do have definitions for the amount of fat they produce. Look for "FAT" in the raw object data.
• A number of pieces of meat equal to the animal's size, unless the animal is defined as producing no meat. Look for "NOMEAT" in the raw object data, and if it does not appear, refer to "SIZE".
• A number of worthless chunks equal to the animal's size, unless the animal produces no meat. Again look for "NOMEAT" in the raw object data, and refer to "SIZE" otherwise.^[Verify]
• A number of bones equal to the animal's size, unless the animal is defined as producing no bones. Look for "NOBONES" in the raw object data, and if it does not appear, refer to "SIZE".