Well, watching 'Never Cry Wolf' just put me in the mood. I browsed deviantART for some anti-predator-control and pro-predator-control art and the like for interesting opinions and those silly arguments, just 'cause. I can see where I am and where I am not a diehard in my opinions COMPARED TO the opinions of other people on this subject.
So, I just feel like expressing what I think about this.
When you look at the cycle of life, the food chain, the natural order of things or whatever you want to call it, you can't really deny that there is nothing wrong with killing and eating from a survival standpoint. What I mean is, when predators kill, it's only to survive and that's just their place in the world--with the exception of humans but I'll get to that in a moment. Now I've heard of a thing called "surplus killing"--it's a behavioral trait in some predators, where they kill more than they need or they don't consume all that they kill, or something along those lines. I'm not sure if this is accurate or not but it seems probable and maybe even makes a little sense. How can we expect any predators to be perfect hunters because it's in their instinct to kill to survive? There's no such thing as perfect, really, only balance. All that is in the universe must have cons as well as pros. To try to attain otherwise is just unrealistic.
What does it mean to kill a predator?
For some people, they do it for money. Pelts, and even the meat and bones, are held at a high value that can be used to put food on the table. It's a kind of living. For others, it means trophies, hunting and killing for shits and giggles. Most see this as immoral and sick, and it's not too hard to see why if you really contemplate it.
Human beings dominate this earth--that is without a doubt. We can get whatever we want, when we want, because we are the most intelligent specimens. We can comprehend things that illicit thrill out of us, and for some that means killing for fun. Are other predators capable of this comprehension? Maybe some (I'm not too sure but it'd be a good thing to research sometime). But human beings are also capable of comprehending cruelty and savagery, but perspectives on this vary. What one might see as brutal, another might see as ordinary. You can see this in the arguments some vegetarians have with people that, well, people that just love their meat.
I see hunting wolves and other predators "for fun" as a cruel sport--actually hunting anything as a cruel sport, especially if you don't even use the body for food or other things. But if you rely on hunting game for a living, I see nothing wrong with it.
That's something the anti-hunting zealots need to learn, in my opinion. Humans have been hunting ever since the dawn of our existence. Today, the majority relies on slaughter houses and farms--food being killed, processed, and delivered TO them. Movies like 'Food Inc.' expose the grotesque side of that system so I don't blame some people for reverting back to hunting for their meat instead of shopping for it. Hell, if I could, I'd hunt for my own food instead of buying Hillshire Farm and Tyson. It's healthier and doesn't add to the demand that causes all that animal abuse. That mass production has to be fast and reliable to sate the demand, those factories can't afford to spend more time of raising healthy animals. It's easier to pump them up on steroids and pack them in tight places knee-deep in their own shit so they don't have to spend more money on space. People don't think much of that because they're just not informed of it. How many times do you see a billboard from Tyson showing where their products REALLY come from? Never. You have to dig deep if you want to know the truth, and the truth is an ugly layer of shit that's been fermenting under a mountain of blissful ignorance.
So that's that. And it sucks, I mean...it really, really sucks.
But back to the subject of hunting, I suppose.
I can understand the vigor and passion hunters possess when they worry over "their" caribou populations and what not--it's just their living, and they have competition. Thing is, they ought to respect that the predators need to hunt, too. It's their God-given right. Oh man, I can't STAND Sarah Palin's attitude towards hunting (and frankly the rest of her personality isn't that appealing to me, either). And as a Christian I'd think you'd have a little more respect towards God's creation, or does that just depend? Does "God's creation" somehow translate into "everything on the planet belongs to the human race"?
Not to step on any toes.
I don't think God plays favorites when it comes to the creations.
But that's a different matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment