On a Slightly Serious Note

I like to fish. Whether it’s threading a worm down a sharp, barbed hook or tying a tiny knot to a rooster tail, I like it. Diana and I went to Blue Lake in the La Sal National Forest this week to do a little angling. After inching down rocky forest service roads, we found ourselves at a small, clear lake brimming with hungry trout. They were jumping like crazy, ignorant that a couple of their friends would be my dinner.  I tied my line and tried a few lures, but they weren’t biting on anything, so I thought I would try something new, a marabou jig. I hadn’t ever used one, but I knew I had to make it dance up and down, so I thought I would give it a shot. I put out my line, started bobbing the lure about once a second and BAM! A bite! Ten minutes later I had two fish in my hot little hands—dinner.

Blue Lake

I am not a hunter, not even a good fisherman, so killing things is a little tough for me. Usually I just let the fish suffocate on the ground or knock them out, but we needed to eat them soon, so I had to kill them quickly. I used a technique that involved stabbing them in the “iky spot”, which is behind the eye, leading to the brain.  I took out my long fishing knife, got ready, but then had something of an epiphany. I felt bad killing another animal. I know it’s ok, God put animals on the earth for us to eat, but I was the one taking its life, I was in charge of this creature’s fate. It felt like the moment needed to be reverenced, that the fish deserved respect. Fish don’t feel pain like we do, their existence has little to no pleasures, and they live to be eaten, either by us or another animal, but I still felt like I should give my respect to it and nature. This led me to ponder other religions’ beliefs on animal slaughter.

Jewish dietary laws, or kashrut, state that animals need to be slaughtered in a certain way, by a pious person known as a shochet. The shochet is a person of Jewish faith, good character, and is often the rabbi in smaller communities. The knife used must be razor sharp and the animal must be bled first with a single clean slit to the throat, causing unconsciousness quickly and killing it humanely. These and other regulations make the meat kosher.

While not one of the five pillars of Islam, halal is the Islamic code of health similar to the kashrut. The halal method of slaughtering is called dhahiba and is the same as the Jewish form of slaughter; the only difference is that a prayer to Allah needs to be said at the time of killing. The method is controversial; many animal rights activists say that it isn’t as painless as they say. Studies have been done, but a clear consensus hasn’t been reached.  

It’s a little ironic that I thought of this as I was killing a fish because in both kashrut and halal laws, fish are excluded. Although I ended up killing the fish and eating them, I tried to do so respectfully and reverently. Even though there is a lot of controversy surrounding the Jewish and Islamic methods of slaughter, I commend them for their traditions and reverence towards nature.