As if we’d forgotten.
Just when we were content with the high snowbanks on the side of the roads and the woods filled with the white stuff that slows wildlife down to almost a crawl, we are now thrown into the official spring and summer season, where everything is once again free to roam and play, and pester until January once again.
I’m talking, of course, about the moose. It seems like everyone who does any amount of traveling these days, has a number. Six, Five, Seven, Thirteen - how many moose they saw from point A to point B, and all points in between.
The argument last year was that coyotes and other things were driving the four legged demons out of their habitats and onto the road ways. I suspect the same argument will be made this time around as well. Although, if it is, I hope someone, somewhere, will have enough common sense to deduce that two years in a row with the same problem, constitutes action.
If we have enough Coyotes that they’re driving the moose out of the woods and onto the highway, then we have a problem. Not necessarily a moose problem - but a coyote problem as well. All in all, it means we have a wildlife problem. Seals are another story - as are rabbits, mosquitoes, and stray cats. Sooner or later, animals are likely to take over the world.
I wonder sometimes if we aren’t too kind for our own good. Are we greenpeaced to death? Are we so regulated that we’re literally allowing these wild beasts to take over our lives? Or worse - to take our lives?
Since when have we no longer been at the top of the food chain? Since when did we lay down, and let something that we brought here, that we can control, actually do the opposite, and control us instead? Do we fear those who will protest? Do we fear those who will ridicule?
Or do we fear the animals themselves? The answer is perhaps all of the above. A different question would be “should we,” to all of those, and the answer would be the same.
If this starts getting any more out of control then action is going to have to be taken. There’s too much at risk, and the potential loss is not big enough to justify no action. Greenpeace or not.
Just in case you’re wondering, also, my number is four. I’ll keep you posted if it rises.
— Rudy Norman
