darkangel1210

About a month ago I had my three cousins round, one aged nine and the other two seven. The eldest started talking about her rabbit that had recently died and that a fox or wolf had killed it, and now she hates foxes and wolves because they killed her pet. It is likely that it could have been a fox, but it could have also been a cat.

The point I am making is why do people continue to tell their children that a certain animal e.g. a wolf, has killed their pet when this is clearly not so. Isn’t this in turn making the child in question think that this species of animal is evil and deserves whatever it gets because of a childhood experience gone wrong.

Wolves, in reality, can be gentle creatures. I saw a documentary where an old gentleman brought up a pack of young wolves and they allowed him to become part of the pack. Of course they are still dangerous but doesn’t this prove that if they were ‘out to get us’ wouldn’t they harm us any way that they could, whether it is direct or indirect?

Another creature that is feared is the great white shark. (Of course it can be any shark that has a ‘reputation for being a man eater’). I am sure many of you have heard of marine biologists swimming outside the cage, exposing themselves to attack from these ‘vicious’ creatures. When a child hears that someone has been doing that, their first reaction is to say something along the lines of ‘but sharks are dangerous and eat people’. Where has this view come from? In fact, as you know, sharks mistake us for their prey, the seal, which is why most surfers are attacked. They don’t hunt us directly; it is just a case of mistaken identity or the fact that they are hungry and anything they can eat will do, regardless of whether it is a human or not.

The thing that worries me is that this view of certain animals being dangerous is having a sometimes devastating effect on the welfare of these animals. These children that view sharks or wolves or any other animal as dangerous without really knowing why will most likely pass this view onto their children, which in turn will possibly make these children act on that fear. I have heard my sister say, when she was little, ‘kill it!’ referring to the huge spider on its web down the back of the garden. The spider wasn’t doing any harm to her; it was just the fact that she didn’t like it so it had to die or it had to have its web wrecked so that it couldn’t sit there ‘staring at her’.

Each animal has a purpose, whether it is prey or predator, or what it does for the environment. But most of the parents I know have failed to pass this onto their children. Of course they don’t give the technical information, but they could at least say that that animal isn’t dangerous because of this, this and this. Childhood fears are most often acted upon when they are older unless it has been corrected, which is unfortunate for the animal in question if this fear hasn’t been corrected. Much like the spider that had its web destroyed and then was stamped on by my sister while trying to make its escape. One less spider to control the fly population, but how many others are being stamped on for no reason when they could be left alone?

I’m not going to suggest that we make a fan club for the welfare of all animals. It just doesn’t work like that and I quite like my roast dinner each Sunday. But I won’t be telling my future children that this animal is dangerous because it is and start blaming animals for something when it is clearly not their fault. I feel sorry for the creature that has been killed for no reason because of the narrow-mindedness of some people. I believe it is something that, slowly but surely, needs to be eradicated because only than will these animals not have to be killed because of the views of the human species.

Do not come to the conclusion that because you may have told your children this that I think less of you or that you are a narrow-minded idiot. I am merely expressing my view on this matter and my name-calling is to the people who aren’t open-minded and stick to the same view regardless of the evidence displayed before them; then pass it onto their children.

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Knowledge is power - Sir Francis Bacon

(1) Don’t run, if you can walk.

(2) Don’t walk, if you can stand.

(3) Don’t stand, if you can sit.

(4) Don’t sit, if you can lie down.

(5) Don’t stay awake, if you can take a nap.

!lord nikon

WTf, you enjoy writing don't you, well i think the white sharks are dangerous.

deaths_raver667

i don't care about animals, killing mine, i count it as nature and carry on.

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i am the urban monky
look to the mune

LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Nice write up, but not really a debatable subject thread...

Moving to the Plush Room Forum...

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