Understanding our general attitudes to animals

Our reaction to a wasp or bee joining us for lunch is very telling of how we view all animals.

Our interaction with creatures such as a wasp or a bee can tell us a lot about our general attitudes to animals. Our first thought when a wasp joins us for an outdoor meal or enters our abode is to drive it away with any tool that comes to hand. We do this because we view them as a threat and a nuisance because of their capability to give us a painful sting particularly if children are about.

Waving our arms or newspaper or paper plate about often only has a short-lived effect. If the wasp persists in its attempts to share our food, we become frustrated and angry and have no compunction in using any weapon that comes to hand to selfishly kill it, just because it has invaded our space and become a nuisance, disrupted our pleasure and become a danger or threat.

bee, nectar, flower, attitudes
We see more value in the life of a bee than a wasp.

We see more value in the life of a bee.

But if a bee should do the same, most of us tend to show a little more compassion and patience despite its equal capacity to sting, because we have been conditioned to realise its existence has some value to us in its role in nature. So we try harder and more humanely to dissuade its intentions.  Ultimately though, if it persists, and particularly if we fear an allergy to its sting, we will again kill it because of its threat to us.

Unfortunately for the wasp it does not have the same reputation as the bee even though it is of similar use to mankind by being one of nature’s pest controllers. Of course, should a fly decide to join us it has no chance as we have been indoctrinated from an early age to view them as the bad guys because they pose a health hazard and are classified as pests so do not deserve to exist.

Flies are viewed as bad guys of the animal world not worthy of our empathy.

We have a habit of categorising animals

This kind of scenario encapsulates most of our attitudes to animals and our curious relationship with them. We have a habit of categorising all animals, and judging them by their reputations and what has been indoctrinated into us from an early age. We are all guilty of having preferences and unconsciously grading our level of empathy and compassion towards their well-being dependent on the type of animal and the circumstances involved.

Our basic attitude is that of intolerance and our belief that we have the last say in any interaction we have with them. We feel we only have to endure their presence if we judge them to have some value to our well-being and enjoyment and we firmly believe that we have the decisive ultimate sanction to kill them at will when they get in our way, pose a threat or become a nuisance.

Animal abuse is inevitable and perpetual.

So, the next time you swat a fly or wasp or wash a spider down the plug-hole take a second to analyse why you think nothing of it. It may only be an inconsequential event to most of us, but sub-consciously it reinforces our in-built belief that we have the right to kill animals at will and without compunction – a state of mind that sadly will never change.

Those of us who strive to improve the status of animals have, and will always be up against these complex attitudes which are difficult, if not impossible, to change once our mind-set is fixed. This unfortunately is why animal abuse is inevitable and perpetual.

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Escobar’s Hippos: the ultimate alien invasive species.

Is it time to allow a little disorder in nature?

You cannot get a more obvious and intrusive alien invasive species running wild in a foreign land than hippos. In the normal course of events such a situation could not happen but in the case of the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar’s and his hippos in Colombia, it did, and it is now causing scientists consternation and disagreement.

Pablo Escobar managed to import legally and illegally a whole private zoo at his Hacienda Napoles from all parts of the world in the 1980’s and these included four illegally imported hippos. How its possible to smuggle such large animals into a country is another matter, but there were also giraffes, elephants, kangaroos and many other species.

“one of the greatest challenges of invasive species in the world”.

When Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993 many animals were left to fend for themselves including the hippos who took up residence in a local river and in the space of thirty years have increased their numbers to a staggering 80-100. Some university study groups and scientists have wildly estimated that there could be as many as 1,500 by 2035 if the Colombian government do not act now.

The hippos themselves seem well suited to their new found environment and have pulled off a wonderful breeding achievement perhaps proving that you do not necessarily need human intervention to breed animals. But many scientists and conservationists hate invasive species and prefer everything to remain as nature intended all in its right order and place. This is because in some circumstances they eradicate indigenous animals and plants and ruin ecosystems and biodiversity and usually the knee jerk reaction is always to kill the offenders.

Hippos in Colombia
It is amazing how animals can breed and look after themselves without our help.

Protected by the Government.

There have been attempts to neuter them but with so many this is now proving impractical. Unusually in this kind of scenario the hippos are presently protected by the Colombian government. This is mainly due to the fact that it is difficult and expensive to relocate them and more importantly the locals love them and do not want them killed. They are also boosting the local tourist economy, and no one so far has been seriously injured or killed so at the moment they are free to roam.

Now they are established leave them be.

One has to wonder why there wasn’t earlier intervention to remove them before their numbers got out of control and why wildlife rescue, university study groups and scientists didn’t step in sooner. Now that they are established it seems only fair to leave them be and the colony could prove useful in the future with the way things are in Africa . There are many studies in progress to monitor them so there could be many lessons to be learned from leaving other animals in similar situations to survive without our intervention.

Invasive species are a worldwide problem mainly caused as always by the hand of humans abandoning exotic pets or historically introducing them to benefit human occupation. In Australia and New Zealand it is feral cats and dogs, in Europe it is animals like the coypu. The USA has problems with animals like crocodiles, turtles and snakes and in the UK it is grey squirrels, mink and ruddy ducks.

We blame invasive species for all sorts of things which is a tad rich when you consider the major invasive species at work on the planet has always been homo sapiens, who wherever they have decided to take up residence have irreparably destroyed the local biodiversity and continue to do so. Perhaps it is time for us to allow a bit of disorder in nature if it helps animals.

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