Just a heads up, this will be a little long winded, but I tried to cut it as short as possible. I could practically write a book on this, and may touch on it more in a future blog.
Last week I was stuck in the break room at work watching "Oprah". This is obviously not a show I watch regularly but I'm glad I caught this episode. There was a lady on there flaunting the advantages of a vegan diet. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, vegan is a step beyond vegetarian. Besides not only cutting all meat from their diet a vegan won't consume any products directly derived from an animal. No milk, no eggs, no cheese; if it comes from an animal or out of an animal or off of an animal, even naturally they won't eat it. This lady then went on a shopping trip with a family to show them all the alternatives to animal based food products they could use. Soy cheese and milk, boca burgers, chicken "substitute" and so on. Now I could rant all day about the silliness of being self righteous enough to swear off a huge portion of edible food but having to admit that you can't live without the taste of those very things you swore off. So instead you engineer substitutes out of plants and seasonings, mashing them together to try to trick you brain into enjoying the very thing you vowed to never eat. Now before anyone grabs a pitchfork and heads for my house I know many of these "substitutes" may have been formulated with good intentions for people with severe food allergies and that is all fine and well. But I would argue the vast (and rapidly increasing) "food substitute" market is driven by house-wives with too much time on their hands who think some lady on Oprah should stipulate their families diet.
This so called expert on Oprah said her reasoning for adopting this vegan diet was because of a visit to a beef slaughter house. After seeing the process of a cow being slaughtered, from the quick, clean killing to the gutting, skinning and breaking the animal down into "primals" she came to this conclusion: (I can't remember word for word what she said, but this is a close paraphrase) "After seeing the suffering and fear those animals went through I couldn't as a human being feel o.k about what we were putting them through." Human beings have been eating animals, and the milk and eggs they provide, since we began for one simple reason; we are predators. Biblically we have eaten meat since the fall of Adam and Eve. Nature has another way of showing us how to separate the predators from the prey; predators have forward fixed eyes, to watch and attack their prey. Prey have outward facing eyes, to watch for danger while feeding on grass( think of the difference between a wolf and a deer). Now I don't have the space or time or research to defend commercial slaughter house techniques, but as a meat cutter I can assure you that all the animals are as humanely and properly treated as is reasonable without having to pay $15/lb for ground beef. Instead what I will do is share a story, a moment that I realized absolutely that I was a predator. This story may actually turn people away from my point if they miss the real message but its worth a shot.
It was my third year hunting and it was the first year I was going to be able to hunt alone. I had killed a couple elk before and an antelope, but those had been under the watchful eye and guiding hand of my dad. Now I would be stepping into the woods on my own, a right of passage into manhood few will get to experience. Not only was I now in charge of what and when to shoot, my very life was at stake. Keeping track of my surroundings, staying safe, and not getting lost were now solely on my shoulders. The woods had never, nor have since, ever felt so big. I hunted a ridge that I was familiar with though, easy to navigate and surrounded by obvious landmarks and roads making getting lost a very small probability. The morning passed uneventful and I was working my way back to the meeting point for a ride out to lunch. I caught movement in front of me as black legs danced through the thick timber. My heart rate tripled in the space of a single beat and adrenaline flooded my veins. There were 5 elk, moving perpendicular to me at a slow jog, heading up towards the top of the ridge, but at the last second they veered back towards me, almost in a direct line. They flattened out to run in a straight line horizontal to the ridge line and I quickly picked out a spot in the trees as the first one passed through. When the third animal passed through I fired. With the recoil of the gun and how quickly they were moving I have no idea if I connected on that shot. I quickly reloaded and picked another hole, waiting for the last one to come through this time to give me a few extra seconds to steady my shot. The blast rang loud and clear but still no sign of a hit. Reload and shoot, again at the last one in line with the same invisible result. At this point I stopped shooting for two reasons; I was down to my last shell in the gun and needed to reload from the pouch on my hip and because I wasn't certain if I had hit any or both of the animals or possibly 3 if they had changed positions while I was reloading. As I shakily pushed the last bullet into my gun and chambered it I looked up as the last elk disappeared from sight. Except for one. I quickly raised my gun, bringing the lone elk into view as it looked down the hill at me. Instantly pain stabbed me; the "tousled" hair on its forehead a dead giveaway of the elks youth; it was a calf. My tag was for an antlerless elk, so I was perfectly legal in shooting him, but it wouldn't weight as much and subsequently feed less and something about killing something so young seemed wrong. I couldn't get a shot, or at least a clean broad side one, with him facing down the hill towards me so I began to slowly circle up to his left. I lost sight of him a couple times through the thick trees, but soon saw him again, bedded down up against a tree. His eyes locked with mine, the look of prey knowing it has been bested and its life about to end to the predator, a sight that will forever stick in my mind. His breathing was raspy, a hole in the side of his chest making a gurgling sound with each labored breath. A quick clean kill was my responsibility as a human being and so I raised the rifle and fired another round. More blood spilled to the ground. The elk just kept looking at me showing no indication of pain. Was he hurting immensely? Was he scared from being alone now and having a predator this close? Undoubtedly. But he just kept staring back at me, the last seconds of his life dwindling. Even after that second bullet struck home it seemed to take an eternity for him to perish but the idea of sending another round into the elk seemed wrong. He had taken two 150 grain bullets fired from a .270 Winchester and acted like he was nothing more than a little tired, he deserved the few extra seconds he had. And as I looked at him I felt sadness myself. I didn't enjoy taking his life. The hunt was exhilarating, heart-pounding and breath taking. Even the shooting, knowing its end result, had all been part of the unique experience that brings me back to the woods every year. But ending this animals life was heart wrenching and breath taking all on its own. In his eyes those last moments though I found a peace. He was the about to die, but he looked at me with an understanding. He was prey; he knew it since the day his mom dropped him to the ground and began nudging him with her nose to get him on his feet and moving before any other predators found them. Even before my shots rang out they were undoubtedly on the move from another close brush with a hunter. His short life had been learning to live, to simply escape any trouble by fleeing. And as he looked at me, his purpose drew to an end, his role fulfilled. I stood, the predator, my goal of sustaining my own life fulfilled. He had given his life for me, not purposefully, for that wouldn't be a prey and predator but symbiotic, and now as a predator it was my duty to use that taken life to sustain mine.
I have looked into the very eyes of an animal with the intent and capability of ending its life. And I pulled the trigger. It is because of this I believe I respect an animals life more than a vegan every could. Because I know that animals purpose: to give its life. And I know mine: to be a predator.
