Save your soul!

[Terry Lee Grams]

Every time you intentionally kill an animal when it was not necessary for your survival you lose a small piece of your soul. You will feel it happen, sometimes even when the killing was accidental. You might not believe this but if you pay attention, you will know it is true. The only thing worse for you is if you feel nothing. Save an animal and restore your soul.

[XLFD]

Are you saying that those who process meat for a living (aka butchers) will lose their soul over the course of their careers?

[Terry Lee Grams]

No that is not what I am saying, working in the food chain in any capacity is necessary for the survival of many. I expected blowback regarding hunting, which may not be essential today however learning the skill was necessary for survival in the past and could be again. All living things are connected so I should not be able to kill anything without feeling something, that something is usually called remorse and I believe that is coming from my soul. I get an opposite feeling if I save an animal or avoid killing it. I hope we all do. With regard to butchers unless they work in the slaughterhouse, they rarely do the killing.

[XLFD]

Allow me to play the part of the devil's advocate once again and represent those who equate deer cull operations to exterminators plying their trade to remove rats from your house or gophers from your yard.  They kill animals too, and usually it does not affect the food chain, they're killed often just because they have become a nuisance.

If you are up in arms about the unjust taking of animal life in a deer cull, why aren't you similarly triggered when you see the Orkin truck pull up to someone's house?

[Terry Lee Grams]

You have to draw the line somewhere, if not you could not take an antibiotic to cure an infection. My point being that, at least for me, something tells me where that line is. So, I may feel remorse when I kill a spider that is inside the house because if it were outside, I would not kill it. I think if humans were further down the animal chain of command, we might have a different outlook about something above us having the right to kill us just because they wanted to. That day may be coming if it does, I guess we will find out.  

[Willy]

Killing is a primal instinct in humans. It is how humans have survived and expanded. It is genetic in nature and has been honed over millions of years of evolution. The problem is how can it be controlled? Now that humans have massive weapons that can annihilate entire populations all at once, we must find a way to stop the future elimination of the human race. Hunting, just for purpose of  killing of animals or humans for that matter is not a good trait for the human condition. But we all know that when senseless killing takes place there are always going to be "good reason" for it to happen. Defending ones society is good, genocide is not. Hunting for food is good, hunting for pleasure not so good. Going to hunting camp for the comradery of fellow hunters and bringing home food for the freezer is not a bad thing. In fact it is good, especially for men to indulge in this primal behavior in order to keep that behavior in the wilderness and away from society.

“Our violence operates far outside the bounds of any other species. ...

Morality can help prevent slaughter but it will never stop it. So it's not surprising that the killing of deer that are considered to be to plentiful and are also considered to be a nuisance can  easily be dismissed as necessary. This cull should be put to a vote of the people, not decided by a few individuals who do whatever they please simply because they have the power.

[XLFD]

I like your take on this, Willy, and I can but agree that the city has erred both years in not clearly defining the problem, if it indeed exists beyond the hyperbole of a certain few who just don't like deer trespassing on their property, the nerve.  So how do we solve a problem that might not exist and if it does, what is the best use of our limited resources and our ample supply of people who still like to hunt even when they pay for the privilege?  How do we get the biggest bang for the buck or alternatively, how do we get the biggest buck for the bang?

Deer culls by the USDA is expensive and inefficient.  Dangerous and divisive.  Unsporting and driven by federal elites who believe they can hunt without regard to laws meant for public safety other uncouth hunters must follow.  This is an unimaginative response that councils choose when they are too dense to think of a real solution, because it's not their money they're spending.