I really liked Neil Smith's Peaceful Cut ceremony. Boffo. The one weakness
he finds, and I tend to agree, is in the words of the ceremony: "The Covenant
of Waha is that some must die so others may live. You will die and I
will live!" As an alternative, I can see the butcher mourning the death of
the beast and/or apologizing to it. Or, as when a Sioux kills a spider,
lying to it: "Oh, no, Inktomi, the Thunder Brothers have killed you!"