Just Caught and Killed my First bit of Game

A lovely duck, a sharp break of its neck and hey presto. Took it home de-feathered it and cut the breasts out. The thing that scares me though is that I feel no guilt nor did it affect me as I killed the little fellow. No adrenaline rush, no nothing. Just pure cold killing. Now that makes me feel uncomfortable.

You shouldn't feel anything, except maybe some respect for the animals that will feed you. Its a prey animal serving its purpose in life, which is to be food for meat eating animals.

reply to post by Gannicus


I hope so, I was expecting just a little bit of guilt but none...... I respect the animal by making sure I eat him.

There shouldn't be any guilt. You are just doing what you are designed by nature to do. As long as you eat it and have respect for it your have done your part in the grand scheme of things.

Why guilt? It was just a duck and if anything you should be happy about the good food it will give you later. Makes me jealous. Cantonese-style Duck would be awesome now

I personally cannot wait until deer hunting season opens. Not only does it test your skill as a hunter but makes for great eating. To hunt them you have to understand them. Truly magnificent creatures.

I just gotta take a hunters safety course then I'm ready for bow season....I want deer jerkey....LOTS of deer jerkey

*mouth waters*

Now...wait til the vegans and the PETA people see this thread....
let the bashing begin!!!

reply to post by michael1983l


There's a difference between killing animals and killing people. I killed animals when I was a stupid immature idiotic kid and felt nothing. I've never killed anyone thank God, Just letting you know feeling nothing is normal for a duck.

Originally posted by Gannicus
You shouldn't feel anything, except maybe some respect for the animals that will feed you. Its a prey animal serving its purpose in life, which is to be food for meat eating animals.

of course you should feel something... Unless there is something wrong with your prana flows..

Originally posted by Gannicus
You shouldn't feel anything, except maybe some respect for the animals that will feed you. Its a prey animal serving its purpose in life, which is to be food for meat eating animals.

very well said

At the end of the day, you took a life....you didnt NEED the duck to survive. You killed it, just to kill it....not to feed your family, not for any reason other than for what?..."fun"?.....and you don't feel anything? I'm sure some people will disagree with me, but it's pretty terrible that you would feel nothing....

Congratulations you just committed your first act of poaching. So what did you do chase down some tame duck in the park?

Originally posted by PeterGriffin
At the end of the day, you took a life....you didnt NEED the duck to survive. You killed it, just to kill it....not to feed your family, not for any reason other than for what?..."fun"?.....and you don't feel anything? I'm sure some people will disagree with me, but it's pretty terrible that you would feel nothing....

you got a good point.. To not feel any type of emotion or remorse after killing a living animal is not normal..

"The predator does not mourn for his prey."

I don't remember who said that but it is apt. You had a need for food, maybe not at the moment, but in the near future. You fulfilled that need by taking a duck. You killed it quickly and cleanly, and you used the duck for your needs. That's called nature. Had you not taken the duck, another animal would have.

You should feel remorse if you kill for fun. You should feel remorse if you kill slowly and painfully. Those are the signs of problems.

So don't feel bad. It's natural. Humans are omnivores. Humans are predators.

"The predator does not mourn for his prey."

TheRedneck

Maybe there's no reason for guilt, that's why it's missing.
We all need to eat.
The Native American ethic would be to feel gratitude that the creator had endowed you with this life to sustain your own.
Think about it.

dont let these bleeding hearts get to you, you did the right thing. You know you can provide for yourself and your family when TSHTF

reply to post by michael1983l

While I don't believe it's normal to feel no remorse for killing something, I don't think it's a huge problem either. The fact that you even considered your feelings towards it, and expressed concern about your lack of emotion is a good sign, in my opinion. It may be helpful to ask yourself if your reaction would be different if it were a family pet you were killing. If you believe your reaction would be the same, that may be a sign that something is a little off.

People have varying degrees of empathy, and also view other living beings in different lights. For example, the majority of people in western civilization consider it taboo to kill pets like dogs, cats, and certain birds, yet have no problem with the slaughter of livestock. A minority (like myself) consider it wrong to take any life except in extreme circumstances.

Basically, as long as you didn't feel any postive emotions, such as excitement or pleasure, I don't think you really have anything to worry about.

By the way, this may sound a little strange coming from a vegetarian, but, I want to thank all the people that slaughter their own animals. It's far more humane letting animals live more naturally, and I believe you have far more respect for the animals you're eating than the people who think meat is just some food that magically appears on the supermarket shelves.

So this begs the question (at least for me), why do some inherently feel guilt when they've taken a life albeit for food or otherwise and others do not. Guilt (in this case) is a product of the Nature vs. Nurture debate imo. Here's a personal story I am not sure why I am going to share but here it goes.

I was maybe 12, and had just recently performed the frog dissection that schools commonly performed in Biology class, I believe it was 7th grade Physical Science to be exact. Well I was intrigued by the inter workings of frog anatomy so I decided to perform my own...live dissection (on a whim after spotting a nice sized toad)

So I captured the toad, cut off all it's extremities as to prevent it's escape. I placed it face up on a piece of board and made an incision as previously learned in the aforementioned class as to expose all it's organs, mind you the frog is still very much alive at this point. The tissue was pinned to the side. I'll also add that at this point I had no regard for any pain that the frog may be experiencing as it was not exhibiting any relevant signs of pain. I believe this may be why it wasn't a concern at this point. I was seemingly intoxicated with the intrigue of seeing all the organs function in real (live) time I presume.

So I commenced to repeating what had occurred in the class. The first organ we removed from the fermented frog was the heart, so I did. At that exact moment I made eye contact with the frog and it began to convulse, writhe, and arch in what I could only imagine had to be the most extreme pain as it's life trickled away. I was immediately overwhelmed with such an intense amount of guilt and remorse that of which hit at the very fiber of my conscience. So I stood and up and squashed it with my foot as hard as I could to put it out of it's misery.

To this day, I feel remorse for taking the life of that frog and have been unable to even kill a bug that has wondered into my abode. I simply scoop it into a glass and let it go outside.

All in how one chooses to perceive life. To some, life forms can be classified higher or lower than others imo.

To be honest I never felt anything on my first kill either, was a rabbit... I skinned, gutted then prepared it, chopped it up into chunks and carved the meat off it. Cooked it in a stew and ate it.

Too me it just felt like an extended cooking preparation. You can buy vegetables frozen or ready chopped but you don't feel guilty if you pick a tomato off a plant and chop it up.

It's just the way it is, if you eat meat and don't want to kill, prepare your meat then maybe you shouldn't be eating meat, or just grow up and welcome to the real world where living things die and get eaten to feed other living things. It's the most natural thing in the world.

To be honest once the fur/feathers are off and it's stopped twitching and you have the guts out. It's just like supermarket meat anyway. It's really no big deal but it's actually a skill worth learning, people often underestimate the ability to kill, prepare your own meat... This includes checking for diseases on the organs and all that. Butchering an animal properly with the least amount of suffering in a safe, humane way which is also safe to eat to get the most out of the animal is a great life skill to have. You should be proud of yourself and don't let anybody tell you it's wrong or that you shouldn't be doing that or that your a freak.

As long as you don't start randomly butchering humans I think you'll be okay

Thumbs up for first kill. Hope it tasted nice!

reply to post by UberL33t


Lol I did the same thing on a frog as you did. The only difference is that I don't feel anything about it. There's probably something wrong in my head though, If I'm honest. I studied forensic science and saw gruesome things... Didn't even raise my heartbeat or anything. I can watch beheading's and witch burnings all day without feeling squeamish or blinking. It's not something I would go out and do myself, I love life and everything life is. I just don't get freaked out by death, never have, never will.

I see that by watching these deaths, we are paying our respects to these people who died. Same with the hunting and killing of animals that we eat. We watch these b*st*rds who commit these heinous crimes against life and when we study death and murder, we are helping these dead people who can't help themselves, it's like the ultimate respect.

Life is brutal, so is death but there's no need to fear it. Death comes for us all eventually so maybe it should be celebrated, not ignored. Respect those that have fallen and learn from there mistakes or help them and there families by contributing to catch the killers / prevent more accidents etc.

I have tremendous respect for a dying human / animal. In the Taliban beheading you can see in the victims eyes the fear, terror, shock he must be going through as his head is swiftly removed. I can't even begin to imagine the pain, shock and sadness of those final few seconds, knowing you are going to die and are actually being murdered that you will never see your family again, you will never dream again and you will soon find out if there is an afterlife or not. I wonder what the human brain thinks about in those 10 seconds it stays alive after it's detached from the body, when the Taliban raise the head above the corpse and you know you've been beheaded. Wonder if it hurts any more or if you feel any emotion. Strange. To those who actually are dealing with death I cannot say in words how much you have my respect. I wouldn't know what to think if I felt the cold steel of a knife enter my neck or body as I'm being murdered. I would probably be in denial about the whole thing.