: gating us. -

yi

mal cannl i)

i STILL find the question
of my personal relationship
with animals to be the most
fascinating subject of all.
‘Tsay fascinating because the
most political relationship of all
has to be the one that exists be-
tween you and something you eat.
If politics is about power, who :
eats whom is a central item of .
power, simply because it.entails |
_ the fundamental question of who —
‘is permitted to kill whom. :
~ Pet dogs are not allowed to eat:
“baby humans, for instance. But
baby humians are allowed to eat
- just about every other species that

_exists, barring (locally) cats,

hampsters and horses.

We humans used to'get eaten,
- t60, I understand, until most
recently by.our own kind. And,
" depending on how grim the future
Teally i is, whois to say Some sur- ..
- vivors might not resort to can-
onibalism yet? ;

‘Hell, if things get bad enough, '
“the animals could be back to

That shouldn’t be shocking. It’s

* a form of recycling, after all: Why , .
oS wholesomely and neatly we like to
-think of ourselves in our dust-free

is eating a human assumed to be
inherently more disgusting than.

“eating a cow whose name you

‘didn’t happen to know?,

As a guy who spent 10 years
raising animals on my own small
farm in the Anmore. Valley, 1 ~
know that my.relationships with |
: the‘aninials:I raised were suf pris- :

ingly complex.'i didn’t intend it:

* that} way.’ It just turned out like
that: ot
I was warned right of f the bat.
not to give my sheep names.
“Ifyou personalize them, it’s
“real hard to’kill them,” Thad it
“--explained to me...

Still; couldn’t resist naming

the first female sheep | bought

‘after my. ex-wife, whom I was still”

eeved al, and the male after my
ew, wife's ex-husband,’ a crude-

thing to do,’but exéellent from a.

therapy ‘point’ of view. (Not .-
sryone, Was amused, ‘or thought
“was asteful.’ But you can \

This ‘chariged the paychological ut
tuation for me when the time... -

ame to turn.them into protein:
‘Thad a little do“it-yourself_,

manual ‘about’ small-scale farming,

with illustrations of how to shoot °
sheep:
est way isin the back of

‘STRICTLY PERSONAL

the head with a .22. Catching
them by surprise is recommended.
They taste better if they’re not

. ~pumped full of adrenalin.

This is top-of-the-food-chain
talk. >

Can you imagine some other
species discussing our species this

; way? It would be horrifying, eh?

- Well, no matter how

modern homes with our TVs and
computers, we are, so far as the

‘rest of the animal kingdom is

concerned, the monster of

- monsters, bar none.

When I was dealing one-on-one
with the sheep, chickens, turkeys,
ducks, geese and dogs on my little
farm, it didn’t take long for me to
discover that there was always, to

* one degree or another, if not a

‘someone’? at the other end of
the relationship, certainly much
more than just a ‘tsomething.’’
I’m inclined to accept as being
distinctly possible the Hindu view
that people who eat the flesh of
animals are profoundly i in spiritual

. error...

And certainly if you go any-

“where near the concept of reincar-
“ nation, you have to face the diz-

zying notion that all creatures
around you are passing from life
to life, just as you are yourself, so
we are-all essentially at the same.

- Stage, that is to say, advancing

toward some higher state.

It’s a nice thought. Who
knows? Not me, Maybe we do
just go to Heaven and sprout —
wings.

The implication of transmigra-
tion of souls, however, is that

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44 For all our ideals and morality,

those of us who eat meat are

undeniably mass killers .

aborting the journey of any
creature interferes with its reincar-

- national evolution, just as any-

body aborting your journey would
do to you. .

All of which brings me back to
the problem of how to live with
animals.

Since there is no hard-and-fast
good old-fashioned empirical
proof, that I know of, of either
reincarnation or karma, it is all in
the realm of speculation, and it

may be equally true, again for all ,

[ know, that the opposite condi-
tion prevails, namely that might is
right, and that humans get to eat:
other creatures because we're bet-
ter armed and organized, and have
no qualms. Tastes good. Mm.
Kill, Eat.

Of course, it’s a war. Most
certainly, if they could, many of
them would gobble us up without
hesitation.

Don’t let me be silly about this.
I know which side I’m on. The
winning side, the big guys with the
guns and harpoons and driftnets
and traps and nightscopes and
helicopters and poisons.

- Oh, and, above all, the slaugh-
terhouses and factory farms,
which, if they’re not bird and ©

‘animal concentration camps, |

don’t know what they are. -
For all our ideals and morality,

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This will have been a really ir-
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