Circle of Life (GRAPHIC)

Being a first world man, I live in a way that taxes the Earth. I use petroleum, in both my car and my Tupperware, I leave lights on, I enjoy carbon footprint deepening bon-fires, and I eat meat. Lots of meat. Lots of everything really, but namely meat, and meat by products.
I recently had the chance to step out of my "Grass-Fed Free Range Steroid Free Organic $9.99LB" ground bison lifestyle, and into a "See that one over that? Yeah, he'll do" position.Yesterday was the first time I slaughtered an animal.
We rounded up a ram and Jack, an 18 year old Australian worker, and I dragged him to his death. Hoisted from a rope, his throat was cut poorly, and he spent nearly 10 minutes bleeding out, looking around, sniffing his last sniffs, and choking on his blood.
We skinned him, cutting between his fleece and the fat that resides below, that had kept him warm in the early mornings and late nights, pulling tension to insure no meat was damaged and that the process was finished quickly. I sawed off his legs below the knee and tossed them in the blood bucket. The skin slowly came off, his head was sawed off, and only the body remained. When the carcass was finished, we cut down the middle, removing his organs.
That night, we ate his liver, lunch today was testicles and onions.

The skinning didn't bother me, tearing his flesh away from his dead body seemed almost like sculpting clay, but when I had my knee in his ribs, just after we pinned him, he looked at me, right at me, and he teared up, sniffled his nose, and cried.
I'm not saying he knew. He was a sheep. He didn't know. And thats almost worse.
But that's the bottom line, he was a sheep, and we hadn't eat meat in 2 days.
Circle of Life.