Having To Play God

 This is a sad incident that happened in 1994:

    I noticed that one of my male goats had a swollen and decaying groin which had gotten to the point where the goat no longer wanted to go outside with the rest of the herd.  I realized that this probably meant the end for him.  That is the hardest part of owning livestock, you have to play god.  I didn’t want to see the goat suffer any longer as it deteriorated further, so I decided I needed to “put it down”.  I didn’t own a gun so I had to figure out how I could do it.

    I remembered that a Forestry employee I knew who worked in Prince George had tragically lost a daughter one winter due to carbon monoxide poisoning in the car.  She had been parking with her boy friend with the engine running, and carbon monoxide seeped into the car killing both of them.  It didn’t sound as if they had struggled as they died, so I decided I would try to end the goat’s life with carbon monoxide.

    I started the truck and let it run, then captured the carbon monoxide coming out of the exhaust pipe in an extra large heavy duty plastic trash bag.  I then held the opening of the bag tightly around the muzzle of the goat, who didn’t fight it.  The goat just began taking deeper and deeper breaths, and slowly, without struggle, it died.  While I was sad about killing the goat, I was happy that I had accomplished it without it struggling.  It seemed to be a good way to go.  

    Of course the next problem I was confronted with was what to do with the goat’s corpse.  Fortunately, where I live we are surrounded by wilderness and wild animals, so I decided to haul the goat’s body, out to far away creek, distant from any people or houses, and I just left the goat’s body there in the bush, so the coyotes and bears could have themselves a meal.

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