"Slaying" is mostly archaic outside of literary contexts at this point, but it does refer to both humans and animals. It's still used pretty often in North Amer

"Slaying" is mostly archaic outside of literary contexts at this point, but it does refer to both humans and animals. It's still used pretty often in North American crime journalism. Some AP stories from the past two weeks found with a quick Google using "slaying" to refer to the killing of humans: * https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-fatally-shot-in-southern-ohio-8-year-old-missing https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-... * https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arrested-in-community-activists-slaying/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arreste... * https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles/2017-09-27/judge-to-question-man-on-slain-wifes-estate-worth-642 https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles...