euthanizing wild animals...

authorities think they caught the black bear that mauled a six year old girl, killing her, and seriously hurt her brother and mother as well. they plan to euthanize the animal. anytime something like this happens, i have to admit, i feel for the animal. don't get me wrong, it is horrible what happened to this family, they lost a little girl and came close to losing a second child...there can't be a way to cope with that. but every time a wild animal attacks a child or a human, we fail to look at why it happens and focus on getting rid of the dangerous animal. this is where it becomes troublesome for me and i begin to feel for the animal.

as we begin to take over more and more land, and intrude further and further into the habitats of these creatures these things are bound to happen. we cannot seem to control our sprawling nature, especially out here in the west where everyone wants a piece of land instead of doing the responsible thing and building a serious urban area rather than one gigantic small town suburb. but when we do this we lose that buffer area...we invade the homes of creatures that are pretty damn high on the food chain themselves, and then horrible things happen to children and family pets. we have to learn how to live with these animals, and we have to understand that we must protect their way of life because it is just as legitimate as ours, and more vital to the continuation of mother earth than ours.

afterall, it is not the coyote's or mountain lion's fault that it's natural hunting grounds were replaced by california suburbs and it finds it's prey has been replaced by house cats and small dogs, possibly even the occasional child. these animals have not "come down" into our towns...we have brought our towns to their homes, and where we haven't brought our towns to their homes, we go to stomp around their homes for recreation. and really, given as obnoxious as we humans can tend to be...can you really blame them for getting a little pissed off about it?

i have no idea how to deal with this, other than to plan cities better and avoid sprawl. but that would take a huge cultural shift, a rethinking of the american dream of white picket fences and a front yard. in the meantime, i can only hope we learn to share this place and leave some of it for the ones that were here long before any of us.

we cry when someone steals the show...hate when it's someone we know...