Practice for Shechita

Question

I'm practicing to be a Shochet and one of the difficulties is practicing shechita on hundreds of birds to become proficient in picking up any bird and shechting it properly first try.

Most non-Jewish slaughtering establishments charge a high price to practice there and buying birds and slaughtering them is also very costly.
Kosher shechita establishments will not allow me to shecht there because I do not yet have Kabalah on shechita.

Is it permitted to catch wild birds (pigeons, quails, chickens etc.) and shecht them without intending to eat them afterwards since they may have diseases etc?

Is this an issur of bal tashchis or any other issur?

Answer 1

Based on this answer it would seem that it is an issur of Bal Tashchis. He is basing it off of Rishonim who say that it is only permitted if the price of non kosher meat is the same as kosher (i.e. you practice in a non kosher slaughter house).

In the footnotes he brings a possibility that learning may be considered a viable use, but seems to reject that;

אבל ראה ספר חסידים תרסז שלצורך (עור או דם) אין בו משום בעל תשחית. ויל״ע אם בשביל ללמוד הוא צורך מספיק. וכיון שגורם לנבלה, ומאידך צריך לבשר חמור טפי. וראה שו״ת מור ואהלות באהל ברכות והודאות מח ד״ה החשש השני שנקט שגם להתלמד אסור ולא רק בקטנים

However, in your case, I think there may be another angle to examine. You can shecht it with the intention of giving it to a non jew to eat. If it turns out to have a disease, then the bird had no viable use at all to begin with and there may not be bal tashchis on an item that has no use regardless. This based on this answer from R' Shachter