Guns and bullets are bad, right?

It’s a tempting generalization, but consider this: I have a freezer full of meat in my garage, and 95 percent of the non-seafood meat got there because my boyfriend or I pointed a gun at an animal and pulled the trigger.

Killing is never pretty. But the meat we eat is superior to anything we can find in stores, and we face directly what it means to be omnivores. It’s a net positive, and that’s why I can’t stomach what Google is doing to hunters like me.

I have a blog about hunting, and like many other bloggers who want to monetize their labors of love, I am a member of the Google Affiliate Network. The network allows us publishers to promote products sold by advertisers and receive a commission on any sales that result from our readers clicking through.

The products I promote range from waders to binoculars to hydration systems to, yes, ammunition — everything you might need to bring home the bacon except the firearms, which generally can’t be sold online.

But Google announced to publishers late last month that the Google Affiliate Network will no longer collect or pay commissions on weapons-related merchandise.

I can hear it already: “Quit yer cryin’. Google has a right to set policies consistent with its values. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere.”

That’s fine. I’ll set aside the fact that Google’s tentacles are wrapped around virtually every aspect of the small, independent Web publisher’s life with products like Blogger, FeedBurner, YouTube, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Affiliate Network and AdSense (I use and love all of these). And I’ll even throw my support behind Google’s right to align its policies with its values.

The problem is that Google’s policies are a mess.

Google declined to comment for this piece but referred me to its policies posted online, and the weapons policy appears to stem from this branding principle: Google “doesn’t allow the promotion of … violent concepts” including “the promotion of self-harm and violence against people or animals.”

Yes, killing animals is an inherently violent act. Of course, it’s perpetrated thousands of times every day in the name of feeding an omnivorous nation. But perhaps Google is a vegetarian company?

Nope, that’s clearly not the case, because the policy also states that promotion of products related to “self-defense, hunting and sporting events” is allowed.

It gets more confusing: Google’s detailed weapons policy prohibits promoting guns, ammunition and knives “such as butterfly knives, switchblades (and) disguised knives,” but specifically allows promoting kitchen knives.

So, where does the knife I use to field dress a wild boar fit into that scheme? It’s not clear, because Google’s policy simply doesn’t acknowledge that any of these implements can be, and are, used every day to put food on our tables.

And the fact remains that just as with guns used for hunting, a kitchen knife or hunting knife can be used to perpetrate the same violence as a switchblade.

Here’s the sad part: It appears this new rule for publishers like me is part of Google’s effort to make its policies more consistent. Advertisers are already prohibited from promoting these items directly through Google’s advertising networks. But Google apparently forgot to examine whether its policies were internally consistent in the first place. It’s a huge disappointment coming from a company whose products I otherwise love.

Holly Heyser is a former San Jose Mercury News reporter (1993-1997) who teaches journalism at Sacramento State, does freelance food photography and writes a blog about hunting, NorCal Cazadora. She wrote this for this newspaper.