In all of nature, there is no sound more pleasing than that of a hungry animal at it's feed. Unless you are the food.
- Edward Abbey
by Robert Nanninga
ecently California has been visited by fire and flood,
events provided by nature and made worse by man. Natural disaster is an
oxymoron. Nothing in nature is disastrous, only man's reaction to it is.
Fires racing across hills of dry brush is nothing. But put 100 high-priced
homes in their path and all of a sudden you have a disaster. The current
floods in Central California are another example of man-made calamities.
For eons, rain has fallen, snows have melted, and rivers have overflowed
their everchanging banks. Not until human beings decided to build their
homes in flood plains did this become a problem. We are all victims in one
way or another. Some just get more taxpayer support than others.
Over-population, and the resulting expansion-oriented
over-development, is the real problem. Greedy developers and their simpleton
troops of the wise use movement have staged a coup that has addicted California
to housing starts. We have all seen the local news, when the talking head
tells us that recession looms because housing starts are down. Catastrophe
can only be diverted if we fill in another wetland to build another stripmall.
Of course, the building industry is going to
cry foul if you try to conserve anything. It is, after all, their constitutional
right to push animals to extinction. What we need to keep in mind is that
these bulldozer boys buy the property knowing full well that it contains
sensitive or endangered habitat. Then they rattle their sabers when they
are told that they can't build whatever they think the Constitution promised
them. These pseudo-patriots of the property rights camp claim they are protecting
the American way of life. That would be amusing if they didn't have the
ear of a shortsighted Congress. The only thing being protected is profit
margins based on foolish, unsustainable choices.
Human beings are not only crowding themselves
onto marginal land land that is prone to flooding, bluff failure,
and tectonic rumblings they are also forcing local species out of
their habitats. This is a worldwide problem. In Africa, its humans versus
elephants. In India, it humans vs tigers. In part of Africa where elephant
populations are sustaining, the locals kill the "extras." Elephants
are not small opponents, so they trample a few villages, and all of a sudden
they have a public relations problem. The pachyderms are the culprits, not
the millions of people pushed into areas elephants have used for millions
of years.
In New England, officials say they are experiencing
the horrors of deer overpopulation. Scientists are experimenting with all
sorts of birth control. The reality is not deer overpopulation, but wolf
under-population. Instead of feeding the deer contraceptives hidden in grain,
we should feed Americans those same contraceptives hidden in doughnuts and
Big Macs.
The Florida panther now numbers in the teens.
This elusive cat is the victim of shrinking everglades due to deserts of
sugarcane receiving preference over the natural world. Isn't nice to know
that we are all subsidizing the extinction of yet another species?
I write this is because it seems that this
is all I can do about the amount of roadkill that is succumbing to asphalt.
Opossums, skunks, raccoons and coyotes seeking food and a place to raise
their young are crushed beneath the wheels of human indifference. If these
were dead humans in the middle of the road, there is a good chance motorists
would at least stop to drag the poor unfortunate person out of the street.
After all, nothing must interrupt the flow of traffic. But a coyote we just
leave in the road to rot. Organizations like Project Wildlife can't keep
up with the numbers of injured animals being brought to them by concerned
citizens.
In San Diego's North County, we are seeing
a higher attrition rate due to the fires that cleared the massive amounts
of brush that provided food and shelter. Deer head inland, and the coyotes
head into busy neighborhoods following the small mammals seeking cover.
The tragedy is the fact the most of the sanctuarys of open space are surrounded
by ribbons of death. Every time I see an animal lying in the road, it is
like a kick to the stomach. I'm not normally a sentimental person. But all
this carnage is beginning to affect me. On my way to work the other day,
composing this column in my head, I happened across a mature coyote on the
side of the road. It had dragged itself away from on-coming traffic to die.
It was as if the Goddess was talking to me, tears welled up in my eyes.
The tone of my day was now set.
Wildlife are not the only victims of this imbalance,
domestic animals also bear the brunt. As wild animals take up residence
in our neighborhoods, our pets are added to the menu. Last week, my friend
and familiar Tofu Aloysius Amen Ra, a beautiful and incredibly social white
feline who loved broccoli and pizza crust, became part of the food chain.
We know this because we found his tail in the brush between our house and
I-5. For two days, I walked around with a hole in my heart, a hole the size
of a loving white cat. All I could do was light a candle on the alter, ask
my friends to do the same, and send the spirit of Tofu on its way. To the
number, every friend I told said at least he wasn't hit by a car.
This past weekend, I saw the coyote. Instinctively
I knew that Tofu was now a part of this new addition to our neighborhood.
Blaming the coyote is not the answer. Being a part of the food chain, he
was only doing what he needed to survive. I did not cry for Tofu because
I am profoundly grateful for the time he was with me. I do, however, have
to hold back my tears for the coyote, the opossum, the skunk and the deer
because once I start, I will never stop.
Robert Nanninga is an independent video producer, actor, vegan, active member of the Green and environmental communities, and a board member of San Diego Earth Day.
