Subject: Baby opossums ARE cute, damn it! (long)
Date: May 13 15:09:41 1999
From: Eric Kraig - kraige at oclc.org


I think that it's a quite a stretch to imply that because someone does not
believe in rehabbing opossums, that they necessarily don't care about the
pain that an individual animal feels. Quickly killing the opossum would
probably result in less pain and trauma for it than rehabbing. And reduce
the opossum's impact on native wildlife. Would it reduce pain suffered by
those natives? Doubtful. There aren't many painless deaths out there, I'm
afraid.

During one of the past discussions on this topic, someone posted a list of
ten categories describing human reactions to wildlife and the environment.
I don't remember them all, but two of them fit the current situation well:
a scientific view, focusing on ecosystems, communities and populations, and
a humane view, that focuses on the individual animal and its needs/feelings.
Much as I dislike pigeon-holing people into categories, I felt that this
list helped remind me that not everyone views the world as I do, or should.

Any one have a copy of that list that they could post?

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraige at oclc.org


> 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.
>