The most thoughtful commentary I have read on this topic. Steven, I applaud
you. Let's hope yours is the last word.

Betsy Plastino
bplastino at chpw.org
Seattle, WA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Kimball [SMTP:skimball at halcyon.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 10:50 AM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Baby opossums ARE cute, damn it! (long)
>
> 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 <mailto:skimball at halcyon.com>