Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Mar 7, 2008, at 6:25 AM, paxamicus AT earthlink.net wrote:
> In my hunting around for more info I found this link:
>
> http://www.certifiedhumane.org/

humane |(h)yoōˈmān|
adjective
1 having or showing compassion or benevolence : regulations ensuring  
the humane treatment of animals.
• inflicting the minimum of pain : humane methods of killing.
2 formal (of a branch of learning) intended to have a civilizing or  
refining effect on people : the center emphasizes economics as a  
humane discipline.

I find that as I have moved away from raising, killing and eating  
large animals I have also moved away from hunting and toward pacifism,  
one of the few subjects on which Tvo and I disagreed. I wish I then  
had this quote to offer for his consideration: “I am not only a  
pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for  
peace. . . . Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he  
believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does  
not believe, such as war?”
--Albert Einstein

My perspective today is that killing--and it seems to be that the  
larger the victim the greater the feeling--tends to brutalize me, to  
make me more harsh. I still eat chicken and fish and know well the  
conditions and processes that food entails, but it seems to bother me  
less than the large animals. Those of you who do raise, kill and eat  
large animals, do you find your attitudes toward the practice evolving  
in any way as the years pass?