photo by John Tangney
So I will have you ask yourself this question ~ Of all the aspects of your life, what is it that brings you the greatest happiness, peace, joy, and contentment?
I would suggest that it is Our Relationships. But as so many of you know who live with those other than our own species, those others bring a rich texture into our lives. And the same holds true for our relationships with wildlife. Can you imagine a world in which only we humans lived….a lonely, empty place indeed.
But lately I have read about other life on our planet in which humans have no relationship other than exploitation. Do you know that Ivory from Elelphants has been banned world wide for over 20 years, yet last week $2,000,000 worth of Ivory was confiscated from two jewelers in New York City? How many Elelphants died for this? How many infant Elelphants became orphaned? What happened to the close social network of family that they left behind?
Do you know that the Rhinos of Vietnam are now extinct due to their relentless slaughter for their horns. Do you know that their horns are worth more in Vietnam then the most prized street drugs? Why? There is a false perception there that the horns heal all physical conditions, and ALSO if the juice from the crushed horns is taken when getting DRUNK, these individuals do not the feel the misery of their self inflicted over indulgence. Although it has been scientifically proven that the material in the horns has no positive effect, the false human perceptions and the immense wealth to those who sell it continue the slaughter of these iconic animals ….now into Africa.
Do you know that half of the wolves in Idaho have been killed by means of sport hunting and trapping (379 out of 746), and a third of the wolves of Montana (166 out of 653), since they have just recently been taken off the Endangered Speices list? They are being killed just TO KILL THEM. So this is really NOT hunting, because traditional subsistence hunting is all about respect for the animal the hunter kills, it is about Fair Chase, and use of the body of the animal whose life has been taken. The killing of the wolves is EXPLOITATION and SLAUGHTER…there is NO relationship present there.
And so we come to COYOTE. Here in Maine we do not have Rhinos, we do not have Elelphants, we do not have wolves (yet), but we have Coyote…a most extraordinary wild being. What is our relationship with them? Do we allow their EXPLOITATION AND SLAUGHTER BY OUR SILENCE? How do we protect them from those humans who live in a deeply empty place inside them….a place where no life has an opportunity to relate with them….only their own loneliness and emptiness. Know that Coyote, like all other intelligent species that share our planet with us, know who we are….and respond to how we relate with them.
How rich and exciting and comforting and full of awe do you wish your relationships with all life to be?
