Help Me Understand...

Sometimes, I really wonder why I live where I do. Am I crazy or is everyone else? I think I have become the Cranky Vegan Asshole. Maybe the longer you are vegan, the less tolerant you become. I seem to go through phases. First, I'm the ever charming tolerant vegan converting omni's everywhere. Then, I want to move to a compound that locks everyone else out. Okay, I swear I have a point.

North East Wi had a tragedy happen over the weekend. I really tried not to comment on it, because it is horrible. Then the second news story I'll discuss hit, and I couldn't let it be.

The first story actual made the national news. That's how bad it was. For the full version please click here. The Cliff Notes version would go something like this: A pack of snowmobile riders surrounded, rounded up, tortured, and killed four deer and left one alive tied to a tree. It is the most disgusting thing I have heard happen in this area. The reward money for helping identify the suspects is $10,000. It's a horrible, tragic, disgusting thing.

But here's what I don't get.

Hunters are outraged. What? How? I have heard the argument that it is quicker when the deer is shot. This means that everyone in NE Wi is a perfect shot? Doubtful. And what about bow hunting? I just think it's a piss poor argument. In fact, this is the happy meat and free range argument. It's okay to kill and abuse, as long as the animal was livin' large.

Then, as if to prove my point, another story came out. You can read the full version here. Condensed version is a city located with in 100 miles of the snowmobile incident voted to cull it's deer herd. And yes, I said cull not cuddle. They're hiring snipers to come in and thin the herd. So much for natural selection.

There are two main things that are fucking with me. First, okay so shooting a deer is more humane than running it over. But how do we decide what is humane? We have no way of knowing what the animal feels. Even though shooting a deer may seem humane to some, unless I learn to speak deer I'm just not going to shoot them. In other words, I am going to err on the side of caution assuming that the animals don't believe there is a humane way to die.

The next thing that gets me is animals on farms are abused All. The. Time. I'm not going to post any links, but you can go out to google and do a search on factory farming. They'll be tons of links to videos and pictures. You can see for yourself. And you'll probably convince yourself that this isn't the way all farms are run. You know that PETA or COK picked the worst case scenario. But, I would bet if you asked any one in North East Wi, they would tell you that these snowmobile riders were the worst case scenario. They would tell you that the majority of snowmobile riders aren't that way and love animals and pet deer. Yet, this worst case scenario is worth $10,000 and cows and pigs worst case scenario is around $2.95 for a carton of milk or $1.99/lb for beef.

Why the discrepancy?

Go Vegan already.