See. I have been very clear. And it got read right over. You just asked, "Why doesn't it happen with bison?" And I had already made it very clear that that's exactly the reason we cull them -- and eat what we cull.
They killed, what, 900 in Yellowstone this year? (I see the goal was from 600 to 900). The herd had overpopulated. And yep, those got eaten.
And you're exactly right: If we required every person to hunt to get their animal protein, we'd exhaust the supply. Hence, domesticated livestock. If you want meat (and a lot of us do), livestock is the way to go. It's the way we went. It works for me.
A "prey" animal has one purpose in the world -- feed other critters. I *am* an other critter. I'm going to feed off them. Same as a bear, a wolf, a mountain lion or any other predator.
You don't like that idea. Then *you* don't do it.
Me? I relish the idea. I embrace my role. So me and other meat eaters, leave us alone. Rabbits, squirrels, sheep, goats, deer, caribou, elk, beeves, bison -- and lots of other creatures -- exist in the grand scheme of things primarily to feed other creatures. I am an other creature. That is their role, this is mine.
I will never share your aversion to taking a life. It's the way the eco-system works. Being "food" for other creatures is a worthy purpose. They are not being abused. They are fulfilling their purpose.
Sometimes I want to go back in history and slap the shit out of Walt Disney, the guy who polluted future generations with his anthropomorphic treatment of animals like Bambi and his father and vilification of hunters. It's what deer are *for*. They exist to feed other creatures. The predators aren't "bad guys," and prey aren't "victims." These are their roles, assigned by nature. And domesticated livestock? That's the clever, talking ape's way of making use of nature's design. Saw it, understood it, tweaked it, ensured a sustainable meat supply continued.
A sustainable meat supply. I should patent that phrasing. What a concise and apt way to describe the livestock industry.
Now, eat my pet? Naw. I'm a stupid American. That's a cultural taboo for us. It runs so deep in me that I even hate to see other cultures eat their dogs. But I don't stop them from doing it. I have no standing to do that.
And
those cultures? They think *we* are absolutely ridiculous to live with such animals in our homes. The Guatemalan next door was appalled upon moving to the U.S., to find that almost everyone has dogs and cats not only *in* their houses but that almost never see the great outdoors. And we treat animals as if they were little people, buying them comfy beds and feeding them expensive gourmet foods. That just amazed him.
One day they got some pretty rabbits at the pet store, the one I remember most was all black, with big floppy ears. I *thought* they were "catching on." They were adapting to our culture, blending in. They would regularly bring the rabbits outdoors to play with them, let them hop around the grass a bit. But one day I asked the little girl why didn't she bring the rabbits outside anymore? She said they didn't have rabbits anymore. When they had gotten big enough, they ate them.
I laughed out loud when I heard it. Perfect! That's perfect. Took me by surprise, I'm okay with that. Rabbits make good meals. And they got to serve their grand purpose. Allowing them to live till they died of old age is the perversity.
Same as cows. They are raised for milk and food. Eat them! My only "ethical" obligation as a human is to treat them with respect from birth till well after death, not wasting nor disregarding their contribution's value. And those ethics, we impose upon ourselves. Nothing else on the planet requires itself to respect its prey.
I'm probably one of the few hunters that kneels before the deer I've just taken and gives it a moment of respect, speaking my appreciation for the role it played on earth, even before I begin what is the initial stage of processing the meat, field dressing it. It's what deer are *for*.
Not many animals *like* to eat a human, but will. It's not what we are "for," but in a pinch, we'll do. I'm okay with that. It's fair.
Did you hear all the a priori assumptions? Do you see my starting point and how it differs from yours? See why we can't agree? And do you see why you'll NEVER succeed in trying to impose your a priori assumptions on me to the contrary? Give up! I think a primary one is that there are animals whose *purpose* is to feed other animals, I'll never convince you of that. Another that we won't agree on is that it's our *obligation* to eat animals. Our obligation! You're not going to grant me that. And from that point on, further discussion has no purpose other than to amuse. No one's mind is going to change. We start from such opposing belief systems that we'll never agree.
But I have additional considerations for your leisure reading you might not have heard before. One is about that predatory obligation. Your very existence displaced a predator. Probably more than one. You and your house, your yard. Your car. Your commute to work. The structures and infrastructures that support you. The wolves and bears that once lived where you are moved on. You displaced them. As such, you took their place. The animals that were their prey could not exist anymore where *you* are. But some could. Some do. Frickin' little rabbits are everywhere, damn them. And squirrels? Holy crap! They're where they never were before you came. Whitetail deer, more exist today than ever before in history. Their natural predators are gone, displaced by us. They had no problem adapting to our presence. Talk about your overpopulation, populations running amok. We *have* to hunt them to keep those numbers in check, same as their historic predators did. And in turn, we charge humans big fees for doing that, funding conservation programs that serve *all* wildlife and preserve natural habitats, natural environments, the ecosystem itself.
What do vegetarians do? Totally irresponsible. They do not offer up any money or any plan to replace the scientifically calculated controls that are in place. They don't even *know* how the system works, its components, that they're talking about putting an end to. "We don't need to kill animals to feed ourselves." That it? That's your whole argument?
Me? I look at is this way. I *am* a part of nature. *I* am natural. My existence is just one predator displacing another, same as coyotes impose themselves in fox territory.
So eat the squirrels and rabbits! (I *do* poach them out of my backyard, and teach my dog to hunt and fetch them on my own property here in the middle of a city). If we ate more of the rabbits and squirrels running through our yards, eating our walnuts and messing in our gardens, we'd need fewer beeves and porkers and chickens! They don't make *much* of a meal, but they're good for at least one.
To intentionally, deliberately take the life of another sentient creature takes nerve. I'm proud to have that nerve. To disembowel it, select choice organs and set them aside, hide it and prepare the hide for leather projects (they used to have drop boxes to put them in, and in trade you'd get deerskin gloves or a knife or something like that). To bone the meat from the skeleton. To know how to make meat dishes from it, how to prepare and cook it, how to serve it, what to serve it with -- these are skills you'll never make me ashamed of. They are skills I've passed on to my children and they will pass on to theirs.
Your children will never have those skills, and I'm okay with that. I don't chastise you for that. Now you leave us alone. You have no standing to impose your unnatural beliefs on the rest of us.
