Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Must We Kill to Eat?

Do we have to kill to live? Turn fellow-creatures into dead flesh to eat?

Been thinking about this ever since I found out Harsh, one of the guys who started up hART - the new coffee/hookah lounge across from the NewSchool of Architecture in East Village (see blog Great Bathrooms (continued) — is a Jain.

That is, he belongs to the ancient Jainist movement of India which tries to do no harm to any living creature, to only eat what Nature offers. Like fruit, or grains you can get without destroying the plant. Not potatoes. You have to rip them out of their environment and kill them.

And killing a living mammal, like pigs or cows, that's another order of murder.

Guess I was never more guilty than when I worked a summer on a sheep farm. As the newest kid, I got all the dirty jobs, of course, including feeding the sheepdogs.

That involved going to the little paddock where the sick and lame sheep were kept. I had to go, select one, then, basically (hard to admit this), slit its throat. Once a week.

That first sheep. She let me roll her on her back. No resistance. She was lame. She looked up at me like, you're going to do this, aren't you. The worst thing was, she seemed to forgive me. And as the life pumped out of her, she just faded away.

And then I was skinning her, cutting up her warm body, as the dozen dogs yelped and danced at the end of their chains. Then, as I tossed out the parts to them, she was just meat, a memory, and a pelt of wool.

It got easier, as the weeks went by. Guess I got hardened to it. But it was never easy.

And then something else happened. I felt a kind of grim pride, that I was at least taking responsibility for taking the life of something I or the dogs were going to eat. It's easy to be preachy and sensitive when someone else is doing your dirty work for you.

Maybe we should all have to be prepared to kill the things we eat. Or else not eat them.

I guess I sit easiest with what I heard many native Americans do. Apologize and ask permission at least from the animal or tree they're going to kill. And be very sure they need to do it for survival's sake.

But Harsh, at hART, is at a whole 'nother level. I want to learn more.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Next Article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1

Do we have to kill to live? Turn fellow-creatures into dead flesh to eat?

Been thinking about this ever since I found out Harsh, one of the guys who started up hART - the new coffee/hookah lounge across from the NewSchool of Architecture in East Village (see blog Great Bathrooms (continued) — is a Jain.

That is, he belongs to the ancient Jainist movement of India which tries to do no harm to any living creature, to only eat what Nature offers. Like fruit, or grains you can get without destroying the plant. Not potatoes. You have to rip them out of their environment and kill them.

And killing a living mammal, like pigs or cows, that's another order of murder.

Guess I was never more guilty than when I worked a summer on a sheep farm. As the newest kid, I got all the dirty jobs, of course, including feeding the sheepdogs.

That involved going to the little paddock where the sick and lame sheep were kept. I had to go, select one, then, basically (hard to admit this), slit its throat. Once a week.

That first sheep. She let me roll her on her back. No resistance. She was lame. She looked up at me like, you're going to do this, aren't you. The worst thing was, she seemed to forgive me. And as the life pumped out of her, she just faded away.

And then I was skinning her, cutting up her warm body, as the dozen dogs yelped and danced at the end of their chains. Then, as I tossed out the parts to them, she was just meat, a memory, and a pelt of wool.

It got easier, as the weeks went by. Guess I got hardened to it. But it was never easy.

And then something else happened. I felt a kind of grim pride, that I was at least taking responsibility for taking the life of something I or the dogs were going to eat. It's easy to be preachy and sensitive when someone else is doing your dirty work for you.

Maybe we should all have to be prepared to kill the things we eat. Or else not eat them.

I guess I sit easiest with what I heard many native Americans do. Apologize and ask permission at least from the animal or tree they're going to kill. And be very sure they need to do it for survival's sake.

But Harsh, at hART, is at a whole 'nother level. I want to learn more.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Brandy, You're a Fine, uh, Driver.

Next Article

New Year Resolution: Less, But Better

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader