(Originally published January 18, 2008)
Being born and raised in the sheltered Cincinnati suburbs, killing animals was just not a part of my lifestyle. When my family was to eat meat, it was to come in sealed packages from the supermarket. So when I traveled to Chiapas, Mexico as a 29 year old man, while staying at a Mexican indigenous cooperative, I volunteered to kill the chicken that we were to eat. The indigenous woman would hold the chicken at its legs completely immobilizing the bird and I grabbed its neck and twisted it. After twisting a few times, I wasn’t sure if I killed it so I let it go. The head twisted back and in shock, I realized the chicken wasn’t dead. My cousin was traveling with me. She, being a Taiwanese farm girl, was horrified accusing me in Taiwanese that I was torturing the poor bird. Upon my second try, I twisted the neck without hesitation thus finishing the bird off. After the bird flapped its wings in shock a bit, it was dead and I plucked the feathers from the bird making it look like supermarket chickens.
Now, fast forward to today. As a 36 year old man, living in Baltimore city, rats are a problem. While living in our house, rats that have come to visit our homes have managed to open the zipper to my back pack to eat snacks from my back pack. For a while, I tried the Rat Zapper which successfully kills many mice, but a rat once tripped the trap and managed to escape. The rats NEVER would enter the Rat Zapper again. I also had bought a “humane” rat trap which would trap the rat in a metal cage.
Well, this morning, I got a call from my sister who lives a few blocks away telling me that my “humane” rat trap had caught a rat and she wanted to know what to do with the rodent. Well, we discussed setting it free, but Val (my wife) insisted it had to be killed. Of course, neither Val or Rolla (my sister) wanted to do this killing so I volunteered to do the deed.
In 1997, on my visit to Taiwan, I went to the mountains around Puli (Nantou) and hung out with the Atayal indigenous. In Taiwanese history, there was a famous Atayal chief named Mona Rudao (Seediq Bale) who led a rebellion against the Japanese to the point of killing the Emperor of Japan’s nephew. The primary weapon for their rebellion was their machete which they used to chop heads. Their religion was wrapped around head hunting. Of course like almost all indigenous rebellions, the story ends in sadness and tragedy, but I was enthralled by the story. With the help of cousins and helpful Taiwanese indigenous friends, I managed to smuggle out one of the Atayal machete’s out of Taiwan to the US. The sword/machete is of the same design as Mona Rudao’s tribe. So, how are we to kill this rat?
For the past 10 years, I have kept this head hunting machete wherever I lived with no other use than cutting watermelons. So here is this rat in a cage waiting to be disposed of. I decided to put it to use.
For the past 4 years, I have read a lot of texts on buddhism and taoism and accept much of their teachings. Of course one of their teachings involves not to kill any living being. Yet what to do about rodents? They bring disease and disrupt your living space. After talking to a spiritual friend of ours, she shared the thought that if a rodent enters your living space, it is asking to be exterminated. So, we should set them free from the bonds of this life.
All these thoughts go through my head as I walk to my sister’s house this morning to kill the rat. Upon reaching the house, I see that the rat has defecated and was screeching in fear. I am sure it sensed its encroaching death and had the fear of death.
We put the cage in the back of the house and I was hoping to find a way to knock it unconscious through the metal wires. Of course a rat moves FAST. First try of course totally missed while at point blank range with the wooden portion of my machete’s sheathe.
We then set up the rectangular cage vertical leaving the rat little room to move and again I missed since the rat jumped up and clung to the wire cage. We then set up disposable chopsticks through the wires caging it down in to a small space. Again I tried to stab through the cage. I HIT the rat, yet like the chicken, I was not able to strike with conviction. I let it free while striking the rat somewhere in the stomach area. I saw a little blood at the tip of my machete and again felt bad that I was such an incompetent executioner. The rat was definitely showing fear as I looked at it in the eyes. I told the rat in my mind, calm down, let me set you free and made my strike. At that moment, my machete struck the rat’s neck where I pinned it down to the ground. Though it’s head was not separated from its body, I knew that I had broke its neck and my machete had cut deep.
I killed the rat.
Just a human being doing his best. 