It's important to recognize that humans are part of the animal kingdom. and we need to hunt, kill and eat just as other animals do.. We can't help it. We were born that way. We are different from other animals, however, in knowing how and having the desire to exercise at least some degree of birth control, and to kill our prey in a humane manner if possible.
Anyone who is sheltered from what happens out there in the dead of night between "lesser" animals in our kingdom should come see what these animals do to each other in my very own yard on at least a weekly basis.
I live three stoplights outside of Wash DC--a large urbanized area-- but have an unfenced yard and live just close enough to federal parkland to wake up many mornings to some horrible wildlife sights and devastation.
I've had to call animal control to come for a badly injured deer stuck in my back yard. I've found deer leg bones with hooves still attached on several occasions. The best guess is that a deer got hit by a car on the nearby busy road and most of the carcass was eaten by the vultures who are always hanging around, and then some other larger animal dragged the inedible bone and hoof to my yard.
Only a few weeks ago, I was pulling out of my garage and had to stop my car to investigate some blobby mess in the driveway---apparently some large bird had met a very bad ending at the hands of the foxes or racoons or coyotes who pass through every night.
The rabbit population, which was quite large until the past year or so, seems to have been reduced, probably by the foxes and coyotes whose muddy pawprints are all over my driveway. It has never been unusual to find clumps of rabbit fur in the garden beds and hear some blood-curdling screeches during summer nights---sure evidence of a messy murder.
Then there was the pile of snow-white feathers lying in the yard one morning. Apparently, some big bird, maybe a seagull (we sometimes see these around here for some reason), had come to no good from either the owls or the vultures or maybe a fox or coyote.
I have witnessed, in my own driveway, a couple of big black crows systematically peck at and kill a poor mourning dove. I've watched my little long-deceased dachshund kill a cute little chipmunk before I could stop her.
In the fall and winter, I've had up to 11 deer at one time in my little backyard. They make a mess with poop and urine and have even managed to start chewing on vegetation that deer supposedly do not eat unless they are very hungry, such as ivy and arborvitae shrubs. Excessive numbers of very hungry deer reportedly are consuming the understory of forests and woods, which is damaging the environment for trees and other living things.
Wildlife hunts and kills much more viciously than humans kill wildlife, any day of the week, unless you count hitting them with our cars.
At least once or twice a week, when I exit the neighborhood and get out on the main road, a dead deer is lying somewhere on the side of the road after a nighttime collision with a car.
Animals have humans on their side who are rooting for their welfare and protection, and in that respect, we seem to be far kinder to them than they are to each other. So it might be a good idea not to get too carried away in feeling sorry for them.
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