Subject: Baby opossums ARE cute, damn it! (long)
Date: May 13 14:08:55 1999
From: Steven Kimball - skimball at halcyon.com


The issue here isn't whether this is name calling (I didn't say that you're
a fascist if you don't take the wounded opossum to rehab) but whether or not
there is any truth in my assertion that using the general principle that
non-indigenous species ought not to be introduced into new areas as a screen
for not feeling empathy for a suffering individual animal is akin to other
doctrines or ideologies which first declare "the other" to be bad as a way
of sheltering one's psyche from the emotional consequences of one's cruelty
or callousness. Opossums shouldn't have been introduced into the Pacific
Northwest therefore I don't care that you, an individual opossum, are
bleeding or writhing in pain.


On May 13th Eric Kraig wrote


>
> Steve Kimball makes a case for one view of human interaction with
wildlife.
> However, as is obvious from this little debate that has started up
(again),
> there is more than one view. I hope that we can engage in this discussion
> without name-calling, which likening one viewpoint to "racism, fascism,
> communism, extreme nationalism and other ideologies" would seem to be.
>