Tiger-Tiger burning bright -- no more

TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
- William Blake

A number of years ago an outdoors writer at the newspaper at which I toiled raised a bit of a foofaraw amongst the more sensitive of his readers by taking the side of a cougar in camping trip attack in which a family’s beloved toy poodle found its way into the big cat’s gullet. The owners of said poodle – which had been yapping at the giant feline that outweighed it about 100 times – were distraught over the incident, of course.

Our writer said, and I paraphrase: “Considering the number of cougars that have been tracked down and killed by dogs over the years, I think this turnabout was fair play.”

Cougars, the most magnificent animals to be seen in these parts, are invariably hunted by killers with packs of dogs which proceed to tree the beast so the paid assassin of cougars (and they exist and are called into play whenever a community is collectively wetting its pants over the sight of a -- gasp! -- wild animal in its midst) can expedite it with a bullet.

What the anti-cougar brigade tends to forget is that the cougar ain’t encroaching on their space, they are encroaching on his. And when the big guy turns nasty, he is only doing what he is programmed to do. He’s a carnivorous predator, that’s his job.

And carnivorous predator is what the poor, sad, and thoroughly lamented tiger at the San Francisco Zoo also happened to be. And for acting like a predator – a cornered and threatened predator – the big boy was ‘executed’. In heaven’s name, why? For acting like a tiger? If we don’t like what tigers do, why in the fuck do we lock them up so they can be gawked at by the public? My condolences to the family of the person killed, but that isn’t what is at issue here.

The animals under most threat on the planet are the big predators. Their numbers are diminishing the fastest. And, one of the reasons their numbers – be they wolves, bears, cougars, tigers, lions or sharks – are in decline is because we moronic humans are ‘scared’ of them. We disregard the fact that we kill far more of them than they ever do of us.

It’s the esthetics, you see. They have big teeth and sometimes cranky dispositions. Usually cranky dispositions because some human does something unspeakably stupid – like getting between a mama Grizzly and her cub. Human gets mauled. Grizzly pays the price. Cub is orphaned. Hey, that’s how it’s supposed to work, ain’t it?

I could make this a big diatribe against zoos in general, but that would be too easy. All I can say is I am saddened by the loss of that big tiger, and I’m even more saddened that such of his ilk should be confined to life in a restrictive peep show.

The world of animals comes to my mind from a thought that struck me once when I was snorkelling in exquisite Muri Lagoon on Rarotonga. I think I am at my most serene when I am snorkelling. I cruised along amongst the coral outcrops and the plethora of vibrantly colored fish and marvelled at how they weren’t shy. Indeed, they seemed to give little of a damn that I was there. I thought, why should they? This is ‘their’ world. I can only encroach on it as a visitor. They have their own society; one of which I can never be a part.

I like that. And I also feel I have no right to impose myself on the society of lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

Amen.

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A couple of weeks ago my delightful ‘Down Under’ blogger friend, Meggie, granted me an award. I was flattered and honoured that if came from her. The award is ‘A Roar for Powerful Words’ and maybe it applies to me sometimes. Anyway, I am honored that she so regards me.

Now, my job is to find some other recipients. As always in these cases, I would like to choose virtually everybody on my blogroll, but I cannot. So, I am going to choose the following as recipients:

Heart in San Francisco: Primarily because her musings, sometimes droll, sometimes powerful, sometimes almost painfully poignant bring me back time and again.

Cs at Another Tangential Thinker: This is a tough and tender person (what a combination) who is intelligent and perceptive and unflinching about dealing with her realities.

Angela at Blog it Like You Mean It: Angela is droll, original, highly intelligent, funny as hell in an often anarchic manner and more. If you haven’t visited her, you should.

Get Off My Lawn: This writer arrives at many conclusions similar to my own, and that can never help but impress me. Just kidding. But seriously, he offers an always thought-provoking and highly eclectic blog, which is what it’s all about.

I could suggest many more but I think I will limit it to this aforementioned group.