Don't Feed the Animals

A friend of mine was telling about a visit
to some of our national parks. He told me
that park rangers were telling visitors
not to feed the animals, and they were
explaining why it was not a good idea.

The reasons had to do with what might not
seem obvious, but are detrimental and
undesirable results.

1. If bears and other threatening animals
were to get used to human food, they would
come after it more, and come closer to
humans that they could hurt. When that
happens, apparently they have to shoot the
animals. Not to mention that people have
been hurt/attacked because bears are
comfortable around people, and are looking
for food.

2. If birds that feed off of seeds in
trees were being fed by humans they wouldn't
do their "thing" with the seeds that ultimately
helps the forest to continue, as part of it
has to do with seeds that wind up planted and
growing into new trees.

3. If the animals get used to being fed
human food they will not do what they need
to do to survive the winter, when humans
are not around to feed them. They become too
dependent on a behavior that is short sighted,
and will ultimately cost them their life.

In addition, human food is not good for the
animals, any way.

People who visit the parks are told these
things, and then guess what many of them do.

They feed the animals!

It seems to me a bit like how our unconscious
and conscious minds work. We may know something
is not in our best interest, but we do it any
way because there is something about what it is
that gives us something (very much in the way that
feeding the animals gives us something, it also
takes away something in the process).

It also occurs to me that when we are challenged
it helps us to grow. If someone makes it easy
on us, we may not do what we need to do to grow
ourselves or be able to do what we need to do
when we need to do it.

Some might even encourage dependence for some
self serving reason that could be conscious or
unconscious. From everything in life we get
something. If we didn't get it, we wouldn't
do it.

Maybe it pays to take a step back every now and
again and see what we are doing that might not
be so great for us or those we love. Then, if
we do recognize something that might be worth
changing, considering doing something about it
before we are attacked or die (metaphorically
speaking, of course).

We like to act like things don't matter. But
we could be wrong. We could be very wrong.
Is the cost of our self centered actions
based on little more than arrogance - and
potential denial - worth it?

This is not to say that everyone is this way
in regard to everything. But every day there
is news of those things that didn't matter
having adverse effects for those who are near
enough to be affected. One might think if
they're not near, they're safe. But we're all
connected, and sooner or later the effect could
trickle down. So why not reconsider some of
our assumptions and make some changes before
it's too late to know what "suddenly" hit us?

I don't know about you, but it saddens me to
see that collectively in some way, every day
we are whittling away the world with our shrugs
and myopic vision. And yes, some may say otherwise,
but tell me: is it an argument worth winning when
it may often be difficult to tell the effects of
today's actions today, and tomorrow may be too late?

If you enjoyed this entry, please click below: