When The Rain Comes

It's a windy Monday, a good day to be outside, unless it starts raining again. The month draws to a close, and July is on its way. Already nearby in the vacant lot a tent is set up- this is a yearly tradition since Connecticut state laws changed to allow the sale of some fireworks- not knowing much about them except don't light them in your hand, I think the laws mean those that would generally not be called dangerous. I don't think rockets can be sold, as the fireworks sold are mostly stationary, Roman-candle type affairs. But the smell of burnt gunpowder always brings back memories. Max, my oldest, is just finishing up kindergarten, then will have a long, rocking summer before becoming a first-grader! In two weeks, as well, will be his 6th birthday. I could say, he's growing up so fast, and that would be right, but also a terrible cliche. I'm proud of him, though. I think his life will be an exceptional one.
I also stumbled across a website (mentioned in Field and Stream magazine, ironically) about PETA killing animals. PETA, of course, has nothing to do with flat bread, and stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. At first glance, this makes sense- after all, animals are alive, so we should be nice to them. Does that include not eating them? Well, that's a matter of choice. If you do eat them, (and I do) encourage developments that allow the animals a peaceful life and a humane end. In other words, kill them quickly and painlessly. If you don't eat them, that's OK, too. There are just about as many reasons for not eating them as there are vegetarians in the world. But back to the topic at hand. PETA is accused of euthanizing the vast majority of the animals that they take in, despite the front page of their website stating specifically, "Animals are not ours to abuse in any way". The website petakillsanimals.com does seem to back this up fairly well, although we can only assume the records they post are accurate. The numbers do show that for every year information is available over 90% of the animals are euthanized that come through the doors of PETA animal shelters. Yet, this is seemingly anathema to PETA philosophy, as they object to hunting and fishing, trapping and generally anything where animals are captured and used for food or by-products. Assigning animals equal status with people seems odd. Animals do, in varying degrees, posess intelligence. However, why then, if they are not to be used as food, are humans capable of eating and digesting them? Also, why are plants considered a source of food? They are undeniably alive, as well. Yet to pull parts off of them to eat, by the same PETA logic, seems also cruel. Why animals are not ours to 'abuse', and plants are, is a mystery. It would seem humanity has cultivated animals, much as they have cultivated plants, to serve their needs. This is a mark of intelligence- man has ceased to be subject to the environment, and now actively shapes his environment to his own needs. Some anthropologists put this turning point all the way back to homo habilis, the first pre-human to implement tools. The use of tools did and does set humans apart from other animals, although in some instances higher primates have adopted tools to a limited extent. So, out of all of this, I draw the conclusions that we are pretty much running the show as far as evolution is concerned. That means that we should do so carefully and responsibly- screw up the planet at our own peril. In the meanwhile, domesticated animals have been kept for millions of years- prior to that, they were hunted for food. It could be a mark of evolution that we no longer strictly need to hunt them, but then again, old instincts apparently die hard. My experience has also been that people who hunt also support conservation and sustainable use of the world- after all, if you wipe out all the animals, what's left to hunt? To say animals are our equals seems kind of silly. I'm fairly confident that your average human would not lose to an average chicken in a fair fight, or a battle of wits. (Of course, there are exceptions...) We have a responsibility to treat animals humanely, and not be cruel to them, especially seeing as it's in our power to harvest animals with very little suffering to them. But to say that we should treat them as equals seems to remind me of the Roman emperor Caligula, who, amongst other less mentionable practices, put a horse in the Senate. Seek a happy medium, it seems.