Life and death

I saw a rabbit being killed and gutted today. For some reason, the actual killing wasn't as disturbing as I thought it would be. It certainly wasn't as disconcerting as the cow milking, possibly because I wasn't the one killing it. The rabbit seemed surprisingly peaceful, so much so that I felt bad knowing about its impending death. Just moments before it was hopping around in its cage; it seems so incredible that we can take away a life with such ease. In case you were wondering, the rabbit was killed by having its neck broken. Christian held it upside down by its hind legs, and whacked it hard. I had expected it to be screaming and squealing etc, but it didn't make any noise. Perhaps I was just ignorant to the fact that rabbits don't make loud noises like cows and pigs. I don't know. Perhaps it actually died relatively pain free? No, probably not. It was spasming for a few moments before it became still; it didn't take that long to die.

I'm probably making this whole event sound very matter-of-fact and heartless. Make of it what you will. I don't know what to think about death now, and the morality of this whole animal killing business (not just killing for eating, but killing for other purposes, like mosquitoes and garden pests). Incidentally, I've had to do some killing of my own. There are these white grubs in the garden beds that eat the roots of the plants and eventually kill them, so really we have to kill the grubs before they kill the plants. It's certainly not vegan, but how far can you take it? If I don't kill them, they'll no doubt be killed by someone else. Using deterrents (if there were any) would chase them to another place where they'll also be killed. If, very hypothetically, we were to deter them so far away that they didn't have a food source and they all died, we would still be responsible for their deaths and eventual extinction. That doesn't make it any better. So the question is, does that make it ok to kill a grub or a mosquito? Or is this issue too myopic to be contemplating about?