The more I thought about this other comment on Daily Kos, the more I knew I should post it.
I grew up on a farm. We butchered our own animals for food. The typical way to kill a sheep was to cut its throat. It would take everything I had to force myself to do this. It's impossible to describe the act or the eternity it took for the animal to lose consciousness, bleed out, and finally give up its desperate struggle for every bit of life it was losing as I held it down.I can remember the first person I ever saw who said a prayer and asked for forgiveness from God and from the animal just before killing it. It was clearly just as hard on him. Afterward I would do the same thing when this task was put before me. It helped relieve the guilt, and the horror, I felt.