Yesterday I ran over a bird… a dove, I think. It was sitting in the road with its back to me as my car approached. I half noticed it but expected it to fly away in time, but it didn’t. It must have been preoccupied. I felt the slight bump under my wheel and then saw feathers fly up, cartoon-like, in the rear view mirror. I felt bad. It triggered the memory of the time I ran over a rabbit a few years ago and how awful that felt. I made a mental note to tell Paul about it when I got home, but then I forgot to.
Last night I was awake for a while and thought about the bird again and about killing things with your car. I almost hit a large dog once in Glendale – close call – and was shaken for days. What does size and species have to do with our remorse when we kill something? Are the animals that could be someone’s pets in closer relationship to us and of more value? Is it aesthetics? Is a “beautiful” animal more valuable? Here in Tucson we have javelina and they are butt-ugly. I imagine if I hit one of those I would feel bad but not nearly as bad as if I hit a beautiful small wildcat on a foraging trip down from the mountain. And how is size a factor? It’s easy to kill a roach or housefly and actually enjoy a sense of accomplishment. Insects in our living space almost seem meant to die. They’re dirty and gross. Paul has seen packrats in the garage and they are really cute so even though they have destroyed artwork, broken into bags of dog food and hidden things in their secret spaces, killing them is unthinkable.
It’s all very subjective – what , in our largesse, we allow to live, what gets whacked and how we feel about it. I wonder if the dove is missed today by its friends and family or if they even took notice of its passing.
Last night I was awake for a while and thought about the bird again and about killing things with your car. I almost hit a large dog once in Glendale – close call – and was shaken for days. What does size and species have to do with our remorse when we kill something? Are the animals that could be someone’s pets in closer relationship to us and of more value? Is it aesthetics? Is a “beautiful” animal more valuable? Here in Tucson we have javelina and they are butt-ugly. I imagine if I hit one of those I would feel bad but not nearly as bad as if I hit a beautiful small wildcat on a foraging trip down from the mountain. And how is size a factor? It’s easy to kill a roach or housefly and actually enjoy a sense of accomplishment. Insects in our living space almost seem meant to die. They’re dirty and gross. Paul has seen packrats in the garage and they are really cute so even though they have destroyed artwork, broken into bags of dog food and hidden things in their secret spaces, killing them is unthinkable.
It’s all very subjective – what , in our largesse, we allow to live, what gets whacked and how we feel about it. I wonder if the dove is missed today by its friends and family or if they even took notice of its passing.
Good point. I thought about some of those things when I became a vegetarian - like why do we eat pigs but not dogs or horses? It's not written in stone that certain animals are meant to be killed as pests, others are meant to be eaten, and others are meant to be pets. I think we should be nice to all of them! (Except fish when I'm really hungry. And cockroaches. You should always kill them.)
ReplyDeleteAgree...and Wildcats need special care and affection.
ReplyDeleteBased on the writings of you two, I think it can be determined that if an animal is a. visible and b. not cute, then it deserves to be dinner. Or, uh, sewage.
ReplyDelete