From the Stoop
Part One
It is exceptionally busy on the stoop this morning. Mothers walking their kids to school and the older ones gathering to wait for the bus to arrive. Cars backing out of the driveways to take their passengers to work. It is a crisp fall day. Owners are following their dogs as they look for the furthest places to relieve themselves. A light misty fog sits over the neighborhood. Sun’s first rays are starting to break up the fog and stream through the naked trees.
A flock of geese have risen up from the lagoon behind our subdivision and are noisily announcing their day’s plans. Seconds later, a solitary goose frantically tries to catch up. His one honk seems pale compared with the chorus that went before him. It makes me wonder why he was alone. Did he lag behind because his mate is injured or has fallen to shots? Is he just not strong enough to be part of the flock?
I wonder sometimes what the last centuries of Earth will look like. Which species will make it to the end and what evolutionary changes will they have to make to survive that long? Because I care and because it haunts me, I follow the battles and often the struggles that the handful of people endure to attempt to make change in how we treat our planet, our fellow animals and ourselves. In doing so, you cannot escape the images of the worst humankind has to offer.
Our population grows far faster than the earth’s ability to provide nutrients for our survival. We eat far more than we need and more often than not we choose by whim instead of logic. People choose foods by some preconception of their own superiority over the source. Wild salmon is better tasting than farmed salmon? Perhaps it is, but how can you expect a fading population of wild salmon in a diminishing number of accessible rivers to feed the demand of grocery chains, restaurants, fish markets and canning industries.
The same principles apply to many of our foods. We tend to not look beyond our own plate. I cannot even fathom the numbers of cattle, chickens, lambs and turkeys processed on a daily basis. Recent stats indicate that more than nine billion chickens, along with half a billion turkeys, are slaughtered for food in the United States each year. Worldwide, more than 50 billion chickens are raised and slaughtered annually.
According to a 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 6.6 million cows were commercially slaughtered in the U.S. in 2012, which results in an average of 18,032 cows killed each day.
The list goes on
What about the areas of the world that do not have the available land mass to be able to raise the volume of animals needed to satisfy the perceived protein needs of the population? Countries like China and Japan, to me, are setting the standard for the rest of the world will look in millennia to come. To a “Western civilization” raised person like myself it is horrifying to learn of and virtually witness the habits practiced. Dolphins herded into the cove and slaughtered or captured, sharks flopping about on the ocean floor after their fins have been cut off, dogs boiled at the annual dog meat festival. The list goes on forever.
I have no idea if the trends are a direct result of the inability of the planet to feed the overpopulated areas or if it is a result of a vanity that has always existed and only now acknowledged. Will a bear’s gall bladder make you live that much longer or will a shark’s fin make you that much more potent? I don’t have answers but I do know that that kind of hunting should not be allowed on this planet any longer. Studies state (conservatively) that animals on the world’s endangered animal list will increase by over 2,000 per year. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered species threatened with extinction. This is up from 16,118 last year. This includes both endangered animals and endangered plants.
When I see stories of animals being slaughtered because they are considered a delicacy, I have to struggle to understand. Why would anyone need to be part of the group of people of North America who feel it necessary to import 15,000 pounds of gorilla meat and say it is a delicacy?
Part Two of this article to appear in the Spring/Summer issue of Live Laugh Learn.
Leo Greeley is a recent retiree of Algonquin College.