There is a popular TV series
on Discovery Channel called Myth Busters, and they do a good job in
busting mostly trivial myths, such as whether an arrow can be split
by another arrow a la Robinhood. Unfortunately there are many
monumental and epochal myths that cannot be busted by the simple
shot of an arrow. In fact, some of these myths have justified the
shooting of millions of arrows, and bullets, and harpoons... into
the living bodies of sentient and innocent beings, human and
nonhuman alike.
Many atrocities that humans
commit against non-human animals and other humans are justified by
myths, human-created myths I might add, much of which being not only
passively untrue, but blatantly false in the light of science, and
severely misleading in forming industrial and governmental policies,
some with tragic ramifications.
These animal myths are so
prevalent that I'm sure you can name at least one given a moment's
contemplation. I don't need even to contemplate to come up with
Animal Myths #1 & #2, because I pretty well live in the bloody mess
created by it.
AMB #1 is: "The
seals eat cod. More seals, fewer cod; fewer seals, more cod. To
protect the cod, we must kill the seals."
I actually doubt that most
government biologists would/could be so simple-minded as to
subscribe to this myth. But it justifies the commercial seal hunt,
so the "biostitutes" among them say that it is true.
I beg to differ, and my Aniaml-Myth-Buster
#1 (AMB #1) has been presented in my previous blog titled "Scapegoated
Seals Save Cod".
AMB #2 will be posted
shortly. And this myth is: "In deer
management, even 'non-lethal' strategies must have a lethal
component". Justified by this myth, hunters, pro-hunters and
lethal operators massacre deer in huge numbers from coast to coast.
The Ohio city of Solon, e.g., pop. 30,000, spent $520,000 to
shoot 1,000 deer in 2004/2005; in 2006/2007, Solon was shooting
again. There are hundreds of Solons across the land, and
hundreds of others in the process of becoming one.
Stay tuned.
Anthony Marr, founder,
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
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