To preface my comments, I am having a turkey breast sandwich for lunch. Sorry, Tom, for your suffering.
A very good post. To go further, where is the line in the creature kingdom that we humans should treat them "humanely"? I regularly kill and poison armadillos, mosquitos, roaches, and fire ants. When riding my bicycle, I will go that far when a dog invades my space. Inside my house, anything not invited is fair game. When I hit a deer while driving a few years ago I stopped and turned around. If I had found the ailing deer I was prepared to put it to sleep. Why? If I kill a squirrel or cat why don't I do the same?
Len