Ideological conviction is the enemy of kindness and humanity.

I don't believe that there is anyone on this list who is in favor of introducing foreign species into other ecosystems. We are all aware of the environmental horrors that result from that. However, I question the values of someone whose first reaction, upon encountering an injured and suffering animal is to ask him or herself whether the animal is indigenous or not. The question of whether one ought to aid a living being that is suffering ought not to have anything to do with policy questions on the introduction of non-native species. Cats and dogs are introduced species. The effect, on indigenous species, of cats, in particular, as has been discussed at length on this list, outnumbers that of opossums by several orders of magnitude. Yet, I assume, that no one on this list would simply ignore an injured and suffering cat or dog.

Opossums, like people, and all other categories of living beings consist of individuals. The pain of a wound or a broken limb, is no less real or cruel because the animal that is feeling it is considered by some to be "vermin" or a member of a "nuisance species." The suffering of a non-indigenous animal is in no way less intense, nor, I would argue, less meaningful than that of a similarly ill or injured indigenous deer or Northern Flicker.

The tendency to think of animals as members of species, although useful for certain scientific and other purposes, at another level is actually akin to the pernicious "collective thinking" which underlies racism, fascism, communism, extreme nationalism and other ideologies. The similarity, is that one forms an opinion about some other (the "them" of any "us versus them" world view), according to some absolute set of values, and them proceeds to devalue (we would say dehumanize if we were only discussing people) all the individuals who are members of that group. One of things that opossums in this area have with ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo is that neither are indigenous to the area where they are currently living.

I don't know whether animals have rights, but I do know that they are often treated far more callously by humans than they need to be. Denying their individuality by reducing them to mere membership in a taxonomic group is a mistake that makes it possible for otherwise good people to be cruel and uncaring. Even worse, some of those who raise the banner of "scientific eco-callousness" try to intimidate other gentler souls who now feel that they have to apologize for thinking that baby opossums are cute. Well, damn it, baby opossums ARE cute, as are the young of virtually all species, be they "vermin" or otherwise. Recognition of that cuteness is one of the more decent things about human beings.

If you're concerned about the fate of the environment, as opposed merely to the fate of birds whose extinction might shorten your life list, focus your attention on the root causes of extinctions and habitat destruction: unrestricted human breeding and migration.

Steve Kimball
Federal Way, WA
skimball at halcyon.com
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