Monday, May 15, 2006

This could be compelling TV...

This is one of those stories that deserves comment, but achieving just the right comment escapes me:

Bears Eat Monkey in Front of Zoo Visitors

Now: I feel sorry for the monkey; and for the "horrified" zoo visitors. But I have to confess, something about this strikes me as kind of funny! Because I can't help wondering if some folks aren't shocked when they discover animals are, after all, well...animals. I have a suspicion, which I'll never be able to prove, that some of those horrified witnesses had the unexpressed thought, "but--but--they're so...cute and cuddly! Yeah . . .

After all, why is this more shocking than what cats do to birds and mice, birds do to grasshoppers, lions to antelopes, every day?

There are a lot of folks who live in a fantasy world: they are safely ensconced in the cocoon of peaceful, safe civilization, they never see an animal slaughtered, they never directly witness the ugliness of nature, and so their happy idealization of animals is never endangered. Meanwhile, the horrors that are visited on human beings never disturb their reverie.

8 comments:

Ellen said...

How quickly we forget the food chain. And survival of the fittest!

Unknown said...

It's more shocking because the monkey, unlike one in the wild, couldn't get away. If it were running from a bear in the wild, there wouldn't be an electric fence to stop it.

Rich Leonardi said...

Go rent the DVD "Open Water" this weekend. You will be dissuaded of any cuddly notions about nature.

Unknown said...

Quite bluntly, if one puts predators in the same environment as prey, this sort of thing is pretty much inevitable, no matter how well-fed the predators are. Heck, lots of people have housecats that go from stuffing their face from a bowl to terrorizing the local birds. Why would bears, bears for crying out loud, be more gentle than kitties ?

Fr Martin Fox said...

Victor:

Thanks . . .

Lots of things interest me. and I confess I have a somewhat warped sense of humor: I did think there was something funny about this.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Victor:

As I recall, in Grizzly Man, the man gets eaten by bears. I remember an NPR interview, that basically argued, he asked for it.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Victor:

Thanks for the offer, but that won't be necessary.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Mark:

Um, I know what a vegetarian is, but I'm at a loss about "vegitarians" . . .

Is that what Tom Cruise is?

On a more serious note, I can't help noticing that between this and my Sunday homily, "Bears eat monkey" is far-and-away the ratings winner!

Oh well . . .