When animals attack
July 29, 2010emily 1 Comment »Recently, a bear attacked a camp site in Yellowstone and killed a camper. While I don’t deny the horror of the situation, I doubt that the attack was premeditated. And yet, the language we use to talk about such events would suggest that we suspect otherwise. From NPR: “the bear entered several tents and attacked the campers for no reason readily apparent to humans.” Really, NPR? Really? Are we really suggesting that humans can deduce the motivations behind a wild animal attack? We haven’t figured out what keeps airplanes up! And here’s the thing that completely baffles me: they’re going to kill the bear. Just like they kill alligators who attack people, or sharks who attack people, or zoo animals that attack people. They’re going to kill the bear for acting as wild animals do. And again, I’m not trying to say that the attack wasn’t terrible. But the death penalty for wild animals? Really? And here’s the other thing that gets me: check out that headline! ‘Grizzly Bear Suspected in Fatal Yellowstone Attack Captured.’ Suspected! What if we don’t have the right one? Then we’ve got a killer grizzly on the loose and we’ve decreased the bear population! Is anyone with me on the sheer ludicrousness of this?
Posted on July 29th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
I’m with you Em. We invade their space and when something bad happens it is animal’s fault. Go figure.