NO U
Now this was originally going to be a much more angry, bile spewing entry. I changed my mind because circumstances have spiralled beyond the ability to point fingers and call people stupid. There's no one easy solution to this problem that won't be completely beyond what would be needed to resolve the situation at hand.
In any case, you may/may not have heard that an 11 year old girl was taken by a crocodile while swimming "in a creek". Of course, this has locals up in arms. I mean, how dare a crocodile take a human that's swimming in the same creek it happens to be inhabiting?
Still, you can't blame the people either for swimming in an area that they think is safe (due to lack of signs warning otherwise). Moreso, it's probably safe to say that being a rural community, there's probably not much in the way of a public pool, or if there was, it would not be nearly as entertaining as swimming in a creek.
However, cries for action span from a somewhat reasonable (yet still depressing) cull, to a complete wiping out of all crocodiles in the area. Culling is fair enough given that if the population of crocodiles has increased beyond the area's ability to allow for safe cohabitation of humans and crocodiles, a cull of crocodiles is in order. That is if you side with the humans, and saying otherwise seems to make you a monster or a hippie. However, complete extermination of all crocodiles would be kind of a not good thing either. You know, with the unbalancing of an already seemingly strained ecosystem?
Anyway, it screams human arrogance. Feel sorry for the unfortunate little girl without the sense to stay away from the murderous reptile. Yes, there are calls for the cull so as to "stop a murderer" from the girl's mother. I wonder if she eats meat, and if so, does that make her an accessory to murder, or in some small part tacitly condoning murder? I'd really like to see someone argue that a crocodile that eats a human displays Mens Rea. If not, they cannot rightfully be called murderers.
So, humans come in and take over, encroaching on crocodile habitat, and then cry foul when crocodiles do what they have to do to survive, as if humans have some sort of ownership over the land they stole from the local fauna. Doing so presupposes the existence of some sort of natural rights that entitle humans to behave the way they do. As far as I know, they do not exist. There's nothing in the natural order of things that says that humans are superior to all other life and, therefore, have right to do anything they want to, and if something stands in their way, God help them.
Have you tried to think of it from the point of view of the crocodiles?
Tell me, if you were subject to home invasion, would you not feel wronged? And when your paths cross, and it ends with the invaders being injured, does this mean they now have the right to hunt you because you inconvenience them?
This is what happens when human expansion goes unchecked. This is what happens when two species are thrown together in the mix. This is what happens when one of them is self-absorbed to the point that when the other acts as they would naturally, it's seen as a terrible sin.
This is one of the reasons I dislike behing human and having to associate with my fellow humans.
Problem
reaction
solution?
In any case, you may/may not have heard that an 11 year old girl was taken by a crocodile while swimming "in a creek". Of course, this has locals up in arms. I mean, how dare a crocodile take a human that's swimming in the same creek it happens to be inhabiting?
Still, you can't blame the people either for swimming in an area that they think is safe (due to lack of signs warning otherwise). Moreso, it's probably safe to say that being a rural community, there's probably not much in the way of a public pool, or if there was, it would not be nearly as entertaining as swimming in a creek.
However, cries for action span from a somewhat reasonable (yet still depressing) cull, to a complete wiping out of all crocodiles in the area. Culling is fair enough given that if the population of crocodiles has increased beyond the area's ability to allow for safe cohabitation of humans and crocodiles, a cull of crocodiles is in order. That is if you side with the humans, and saying otherwise seems to make you a monster or a hippie. However, complete extermination of all crocodiles would be kind of a not good thing either. You know, with the unbalancing of an already seemingly strained ecosystem?
Anyway, it screams human arrogance. Feel sorry for the unfortunate little girl without the sense to stay away from the murderous reptile. Yes, there are calls for the cull so as to "stop a murderer" from the girl's mother. I wonder if she eats meat, and if so, does that make her an accessory to murder, or in some small part tacitly condoning murder? I'd really like to see someone argue that a crocodile that eats a human displays Mens Rea. If not, they cannot rightfully be called murderers.
So, humans come in and take over, encroaching on crocodile habitat, and then cry foul when crocodiles do what they have to do to survive, as if humans have some sort of ownership over the land they stole from the local fauna. Doing so presupposes the existence of some sort of natural rights that entitle humans to behave the way they do. As far as I know, they do not exist. There's nothing in the natural order of things that says that humans are superior to all other life and, therefore, have right to do anything they want to, and if something stands in their way, God help them.
Have you tried to think of it from the point of view of the crocodiles?
Tell me, if you were subject to home invasion, would you not feel wronged? And when your paths cross, and it ends with the invaders being injured, does this mean they now have the right to hunt you because you inconvenience them?
This is what happens when human expansion goes unchecked. This is what happens when two species are thrown together in the mix. This is what happens when one of them is self-absorbed to the point that when the other acts as they would naturally, it's seen as a terrible sin.
This is one of the reasons I dislike behing human and having to associate with my fellow humans.
Problem
reaction
solution?