Can a meat-eating person practise non-violence? Eileen Delehanty Pearkes looks at ahimsa, in the 8th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
From ascent magazine, issue 38, summer 2008:
One day last winter, as I was returning from a walk to the grocery store with my dog, she disappeared around the corner into a lane. I called to her, but in uncharacteristic fashion, she did not reappear for some time. Finally, she careened around thecorner out of the lane, a hunk of bloody bone dangling from her mouth. She peeled joyfully past me and made her way up the hill toward our house, strutting her prize before the other dogs that live around us. A few days later, after more bits of flesh and bone had stained the snow on the street and caused all manner of competitive canine jostling and enthusiastic chewing, the source of the meat was finally identified: a hunter living down the hill had butchered a deer in his back garage and left the remains in open containers…