Who needs 'em. We can't inhibit human development for the sake of other species like those bugs!

So I just got back from a Hash and although I did not have too much to drink that I couldn't ride my bike home, I guess I had too much to do anything productive the rest of the night. I guess that means I should ramble on my blog.

A great new discovery (for me) on NPR. In Radio Expeditions, NPR takes us into the Amazon to listen to some all-to-often considered "insignificant" bugs. I can't understand how people would listen to them, listen to their incomprehensibly complex language, hear about their social activity, and still say "eh, so what. Who needs 'em. We can't inhibit human development for the sake of other species like those bugs."

I wont go so far as to say we all need them, but then again, I don't need most of the people I see every day, so why not just get rid of them?

What I will say is that they are living creatures, just the same as me, and I have no reason to think that I am any more special or deserving of the earths resources than they are.

Sure, if a mosquito is biting me I will slap it dead. Much in the same way that a bear who finds me between herself and her cubs would slap me to death. I have no problem with that. That is nature. I take a risk if I get between the bear and her cubs just as the mosquito takes a risk when it bites me.

But I have never heard of a bear attacking a human simply because they want (not need) a cup of coffee in the morning, and the human is living in the increadibly bio-dieverse ecosystem where they would like to plant grow that coffee.

This is where I can no longer empathise with the "all other species be damned" people.

Don't get me wrong. I understand how people have come to think this way. We are raised to belive that humans are "better" and animals have no feelings or thoughts. It is only recently that science has begun to show what (let's face it) we all knew to some extent. That is that animals have emotions and are fundamentally no different than humans.

Sure, if I kill a chicken or Awii (one of my cockatiels) he will never know what hit him, but the same is true if I was a sniper taking a shot at Joe Shmoe. (I hope there is no one really named Joe Shome - if so, I mean you no harm)

Yet, he had a very productive life ahead of him. He had seeds to eat and spill, walls and books to chew and destroy, and lots of places to poop. He is a busy bird.

Now, you may think this is not worthy of life, but come-on. Is writing emails, making spreadsheets, or designing a web-site any more valuable to the world? I think not. If I kill Awaii, his potential (including the potential of making me and Tomoe happy) will be lost.

What's more, if I kill Awaii, Klee (my other cockatiel) will be very lonely. Yes. Birds have emotions. Birds feel loneliness and boredom and pleasure. How is this any different than killing my neighbor - who may be missed by her children.

I can no more kill a bird than I can kill my neighbor (and my neighbor annoys me much more than the birds do - even though they poop on my face in the morning when I am sleeping.)

Now, there are some instances when the bird may seem less "valued". For example, when Guri (my parakeet) died, he died from an illness that had been plaguing him for a long time. I had the option to take him to the hospital or not. i knew what they would say (because they had said it so many times before), and so I decided that I can't really help him. Was it just to save $50. Maybe.

But if it was a relative who was just as obviously living in pain and so close to death, would I do everything in modern science's power to save them? Maybe. But I really think that that choice would be based more on wanting human society to look on me favorably, than on what I think is best for the suffering relative. I think that the best thing for guri at that time was to just die, rather than spend the rest of his life puking.

On the other hand, if letting Guri die would have brought the wrath of parakeets across the world to my doorstep, would I have been so free about refusing medical care? Maybe not, but the decision would have been for my best interest, not his.

These are just my random thoughts that I jotted down one night after drinking some beer. I don't know if it is really what I think, but I think it is what I think.

When I came back from Sweden in July, Tomoe and I made the move to "almost" vegan. I say "almost", because we still consider ourselves "strategic eaters". That is, we don't make all-encompassing rules about what we eat, but we judge it on a situational basis.

If we am in complete control of what gets ordered, we order no meat or animal products. If we are not in control, and someone orders some animal products, or spends time and effort making us a hamburger, rather than see leftovers get thrown away, we will eat it with full knowledge and acknowledgment of the poor living conditions the living, feeling animal endured that we may eat him/her, as well as the environmental damage caused in the production and transportation of such low-efficiency food.

In our house there are still some legacy animal products remaining. We have eggs. We have butter. Once they are gone, that is the end. The only problem is that the eggs and butter have been sitting there for months, and we have no appetite for them.

I will not plead that all readers become "strategic eaters", but I do plead that you think about where your food comes from.

What if it was you that was locked in a stall your whole life to produce eggs for some other species to eat? Do you really believe that somehow chickens are not stressed by their lifestyle? Is your argument that "That is how nature works"? If so, I urge you to really examine that belief and look for examples. And then take it a step further and think about how you would feel if you were the one who was in the little cage for your ENTIRE LIFE. It makes it even worse if you are an animal without the ability to reason as we humans can. Imagine you are in a situation you don't like, but you have no ability to calm yourself with reason.

I know that this argument will mostly fall on "unwilling-to-listen" ears, so I don't know why I even write about it. I guess it's just something I have been wanting to express for a long time, and it takes a little beer to make it possible. Sigh... if only I hadn't had the beer I could have expressed it much better.