Douglas F. Daily
dfdaily at juno.com
Seattle WA 98195

On Thu, 13 May 1999, Jacki Bricker wrote:

> 2. That having been said, Scott, I do want to mention that any wildlife
> rehabilitator worth their salt does not display preferential treatment of
> one species over another. It's not our right to play God, and decide who is
> "worth" saving and who isn't. If it's brought to us, we try to help it to
> the best of our ability. Let the bureaucrats sort out management issue.
> It's not for us/me to decide. It's still a living creature, and has
> inherent value as such.

Then let's treat it (as someone mentioned) as a wild animal, leave it to
survive or end up as someone's dinner or worm food. This is what happens
in real life to indigenous or introduced animals when people don't
interfere. I believe rehab resources (which are limited) need to be put to
the best use, and that is not saving every cute thing that crosses our
path. Difficult, but i'm sure some falcon would love a bite of possum.

>
> 3. However, as a side note, I do want to add that people of western European
> decent have been introduced into this area; the same as scotch broom,
> starlings, and house sparrows (and, I might add, are more damaging per
> capita to the native environment). If you're advocating not assisting
> introduced species, does that also mean that you wouldn't help an injured
> Caucasian person? Of course not. It's illegal, for one thing, and
> considered something that a person with values wouldn't think of doing. But
> I make that point to illustrate *my* point:
>
> I would help an animal in trouble, be it injured or orphaned, to the best of
> my ability. In my opinion, it's the right and ethical thing to do. I
> wouldn't mandate how you handle a similar situation-that's for you to work
> out for yourself. But just as I would help a person in trouble, I would
> help another species. I consider it hubris to decide unilaterally who lives
> and who dies.
>

I respect your position to help an(y) animal in trouble, just as i'm sure
you would respect mine to be selective.

Unindigenous homo sapiens are a real problem, but unlike possums which
will breed to maximum capacity, we can make decisions about our
environment, even if we don't always do that.

However, 'we' do play God, everytime we eat meat.