Killing Turkeys "Humanely," "The Balance of Life" and "An Animal's Purpose"

I recently watched a video about a woman who kills turkeys “humanely” so that others can experience the whole process of killing what they will eat.  I personally thought it was horrid and mentally sickening, but others who were there tried to make it a good and spiritual experience because “they were connecting with what life is really about.”  They enjoyed the power of holding down their own turkey as it was dying and feeling a ‘life force” leave an animal. “Life force leaving the animal” was the way they put it – I call it murder. 

The woman, who seemed quite sad, justified her business and said, “The turkeys are here to be killed; that is their purpose.”  Two problems with that scenario:  1: People do not need meat in order to live, and 2:  Being eaten is not the purpose of a turkey.  If being eaten were the turkey’s purpose, then your purpose must be to be eaten as well.  If you were out in the wild, you would most likely be eaten by: tigers, lions, crocodiles, leopards, sharks, chimpanzees (rarely), polar bears, wolves, sloth bears, piranhas, one type of hyena, or humans (cannibalism). 

It’s kind of hard to claim that humans are different when we can be eaten by other animals, so we are not highest on the food chain.     

A person reading this may quote verses from the Bible that claim “animals are for our use” (when oddly, there are passages supporting vegetarianism in the Bible too); or a few may become convinced that humans do have the purpose of being food for other animals. “It is the way of life,” you say.  Then why are you not allowing yourself to fulfill your purpose?  Eating animals as their purpose or as your necessity fails.  Staying alive long enough to reproduce – does not require meat.  And, reproducing is not necessary either, since our population is skyrocketing.

When people claim that it is the “way of life” to eat animals, do they think it is the way of life to allow animals to be penned up on factory farms, or milked so your own milk can be fed to another species?  Humans are drinking milk that rightfully belongs to a calf, who is then raised  on formula, never having a drop of her own mother’s milk.  Is this “The way of life and what nature intended?” There is nothing natural about it.  If this is “The way of life,” then humans should also be penned up and bred simply to be eaten by all the animals named above who would reap some of the benefits of us imprisoning other humans for animal consumption. 

But let’s look at this sensibly.  If you want to call reproducing a purpose, it then becomes our “purpose” to avoid being eaten!  So eating a turkey is ruining the purpose of life for that turkey. 

The old phrases still stick because they seem to make sense to most people who don’t look at them critically.  Example:  “There is a balance of nature and we must consume animals – it is the natural, healthy cycle of the earth.”  But what do genetically modified turkeys, ground up baby male chicks and imprisoned animals have to do with the balance of nature?” 

I still think we have absolutely no purpose, because if we did not reproduce, then the genes would not be transferred and eventually humans would die out.  What of it?  Other life would be better off without us, as would the earth. Therefore, we have no valued, natural purpose; however, we do create our purposes culturally, and we can turn around a lot of the destructive ways of the earth. 

Why, then can we not see that it is not a necessary purpose of a turkey to be eaten by us?  It has been proven that we do not need meat in order to survive and thrive healthfully (unless you live in Siberia or upper Canada, or are very poor and have to hunt to survive. But move to a better climate – seriously!  I saw a documentary on Siberians’ lifestyles and I thought it was the worst way to live.)  Since we do not need meat (and we are healthier without it), it is counter-purposeful to eat turkeys.  It is done purely for cultural taste because it is not necessary; it therefore, is murder and it is immoral. 

Humans have the ability to block such realizations, even when they are told to them directly, and since I was one who did that, I understand.  But as soon as I saw the videos where it was not words on a page, but instead suffering before my eyes as I watched, I changed my ways.  I hope readers find what a turning point that will change their behaviors if they still eat meat or drink dairy.  Go watch some factory farm videos and challenge yourself!  It worked for me.