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?