Huffington Magazine Issue 66 | Page 31

Voices BOB COMIS GETTY IMAGES/PERSPECTIVES Killing for a Living WHEN I STARTED farming, I had never killed anything — except maybe insects. I wasn’t one of those kids that ran around with a BB gun shooting birds and other little critters just for fun. In fact, when I was with any of my friends that were doing that, I always looked at the death of the animal as a sort of mini tragedy, a transgression of the sanctity of life. And, even though I did it all of the time, I actually felt bad when I killed insects. Then I became a meat animal livestock farmer, who is, of course, a person who raises animals — sentient, expressive animals — for the sole purpose of killing them so that we can eat their flesh. Initially, and still to a large degree today, this was something of a challenge for me. My feelings about life were, and are, in direct contradiction to my actions in regards to the lives of those animals, or, more specifically, to their deaths. HUFFINGTON 09.15.13