My Comment on a Comment

I need to address a comment that was sent to me today on this blog, a comment I cannot post because of its derogatory nature and I have children who read this blog.  In addition, the commenter didn’t sign his or her name and I will only post comments by those who are not afraid to put their name to them.

This person made it quite clear that he/she feels animals should be treated the same as people.  There were accusations made in the comment and contempt and hate oozed from the words. 

I understand that people feel very strongly about animals, I was once of the mentality the same as these animal rights people, that animals are better than people and they deserve equal treatment if not better treatment than that allotted to humans.  So I understand where this commenter is coming from. 

What changed my way of thinking?  Well, I grew up, I became more involved in the business aspect of animal ownership and I began to put myself in the shoes of people whose livelihoods depended on an animal, either dead or alive.

I will never forget a conversation I had 11 years ago with who would now be my Mother-in-Law if she was still alive.  I commented how terrible it was that tigers were poached by native citizens to sell into the Black Market.  Her reply was, “do you begrudge that man for killing that tiger when in doing so he can feed and house his family for a year.  Would you take that away from him?  Can you honestly tell him he shouldn’t kill that tiger, and rather let his family starve?”

I was young and didn’t have a family to feed and I, like most of lower middle class people, have never known a day of hunger.  But I sat there speechless at that reply.  It was then I began to put the value of animals into perspective.  Even I, an openly proclaimed animal lover, couldn’t condemn a man for wanting to feed his family…even if it meant the life of a beautiful wild tiger.  Don’t get me wrong, I still had internal conflicts with this realization.  I still tried to rationalize a reason for that animal to live.  But ultimately, that conversation changed my whole outlook on life. 

And you know what?  It was very liberating.  I no longer felt weighed down by self-perceived notions of animal abuse or injustice that I felt the world was full of.  Bull fighting, dog fighting, wild elephant culls, the seal slaughter, dolphins in tuna nets, bile bear farming, and the dozens of other examples that I felt were terrible, terrible things and worse still, I could do nothing about.  I came to realize these were no longer my burdon.  As I began to see the positive side, the humanitarian side of the equation, the tragity didn't seem quite so huge. Yes, the animals are still affected.  But the way I precieve the issue has changed.  Does this mean I don't care about animals?  Not at all.  You wont find me hitting a baby seal to dealth.  But I don't hate the person who does do.  He is trying to feed his family also.  Nor will I engage in any campaign to stop that person from killing baby seals, unless I am willing to pay that person's salary for the rest of his life. 

I do what I can.  I don't buy seal skin boots and I do buy Dolphin safe tuna.  And I wont condemn anyone who does otherwise, and neither should you. 

So to address certain accusations and questions made by this commenter, I would say this.  Do we make mistakes?  Sure we do.  Are we guilty of neglecting and abusing our tortoise? I will admit we are guilty of not treating that tortoise as a human being.  But I don’t think that tortoise would want to be treated as a human any more then I want to be treated as a tortoise. 

Do we feel singled out and targeted?  Are we crying foul in regards to the way we have been treated by our governing authorities?  Yes, I guess we are.  Because we make it no secret that we treat animals like animals we offend the people who believe otherwise.  These offended people have lots of time to hound our government into submission who turn on use because we are the “escape goat”.  The government is of the mistaken notion that if GuZoo was gone, people would stop hounding them.  But the very day after SRD ordered GuZoo closed last June, a certain animal rights group out of Edmonton cheered and said,” yes! We got GuZoo!  Now lets go for Doug’s”.  And after Doug, who?  And where does it stop?

Yes, Devon our Tortoise has a new enclosure that all will be welcome to see when we open in April.  But I know it will only be a matter of time before the animal rights people find something terribly inadequate with it.  Why?  Because it is not about the animal.  It is about principalities.