VENTING

It has been a long time, but lately I have been getting all kinds of links regarding animal cruelty of all kinds, shark finning, dog farming for meat, news of some crazy man shooting innocent children at school. Then you read stuff like inhuman slaughtering of animals, and I wonder what is a human slaughtering? Is instant death what makes it human?

For instance, lets take the sharks, sharks may kill about 30 humans a year but humans kill over 100 000 sharks a year. And what about dogs? How many humans have dogs killed? How many dogs, cats, pigs, cows, chickens and other God creatures are we killing a year? And how many humans are killed by humans?

I am ashamed to say, I killed, yes I did, I directly killed a six week old kitty by stepping on its back in the middle of the night, I was going to the washroom in the dark, the experience traumatized my best friend who was sleeping over that night, and I felt like..., I still haven't found a word for how I felt that night, forty years ago. I am still thinking about it.

Anyhow, my point is I would like to understand, no, maybe I don't, matter of fact I don't want to understand why people become killers, killers of animals or killers of man. Understanding would equal forgiveness. As of late, I take to thanking the part of an animal on my plate for giving its life so I can savor its flesh feeling less guilt. A a few times a  week I try to convert to vegetarianism  but it requires a lot of preparation time, so I compromise by not eating meat a few days a week, I consider its a beginning.

Its a two edge sword, no animals in the food chain, I would eat other stuff, but if I stop eating meat would the demands diminish, would fewer animals get to the slaughter house? I am heading in the vegetarian direction, eventually, one day, maybe sooner than anticipated.

But what about killers of men? War, cruelty, vengeance, passion crimes and whatever reasons people kill people, it doesn't matter if I am a vegetarian or not, it won't impact how many people will die at the hands of a human. I wonder if in our gene pool exist a couple of designer genes, one that makes some of us pacifists and the other, killers. Go figure, what if everyone had the pacifist gene? How would that play out, the planet is over populated in some area as it is, imagine if there was no war, would we also inherit a birth regulator gene? Balance...

To be ....