From "slaughtering" to "destroying" to "processing"

[Shuixiang Xiansi] I heard the word "humane treatment" for the first time recently. It used to be heard more often as "humane destruction".

"Humane destruction" is generally translated from the English "animal euthanasia", which, as the name suggests, refers to the euthanasia of animals. The reasons for euthanasia usually include serious injury or illness of animals, removal of excess stray animals, and use of animals for experiments. Before that, the phrase "humane slaughter" probably appeared first. Quite bluntly, "slaughter" means slaughter. The United Kingdom has The Humane Slaughter Association, and the United States has passed the Humane Slaughter Act. This concept is obviously derived from animal husbandry, such as the place where people slaughter a large number of animals for meat, which is called a "slaughterhouse". Due to the increasing popularity of the concept of animal rights in recent times, many countries want to alleviate the suffering caused by the process of converting life into food, so they advocate the slaughter of animals according to the principles of humaneness.

As for "humane dispatch", according to the English version of the Hong Kong government website, it was originally translated from "humane dispatch". You may notice that some organisations in the UK will provide courses or training manuals on "humane handling". This concept does not come from slaughtering in the process of food production, but actually means that foreigners sometimes either deliberately or compelled to kill wild animals by themselves, so they choose methods that cause less suffering. To put it simply, it is to let the animal die a little more happily. For example, one day a truck driver injured a deer that jumped into the road, and he could not see it alive, so he could be "humanely dealt with" according to the guidelines. In fact, "humane treatment" is not a good translation. "dispatch" has the meaning of killing people and animals. How can it be fooled by a single "handling"? A more quaint name is "the fatal blow" or "the killing of mercy" (coup de grâce). Just like Tanjiro's move.

So is the recent behavior of the Hong Kong government counted as slaughtering or killing? It's open for discussion here. I think Chinese words often do not seek precision, and only use bureaucratic convenience to whitewash the truth. "Humane Destruction" is probably better than "Humane Slaughter", it seems to destroy objects, weakening the meaning of killing life. However, "humane destruction" is still quite violent, so changing it to "humane treatment" is more like an ordinary process, isn't it? From "slaughtering" to "destroying" to "processing", it is a process in which life is more and more despised.