she's
actual
size

I can finally talk about what I was mulling over yesterday.

It's something that I've felt strongly about for a while. I talked about it briefly at a panel discussion at Anthrocon last year, but that only touched the surface of what I was thinking. (At the time, too, I had just finished driving a long way and was being distracted by a gentleman friend I had just met named Dave...)

Yesterday I watched a cat outside my window stalk a sputzie, pounce, and kill it. I felt vaguely horrified at the time, but did nothing to stop it. After all, that's what cats do. They are little killing machines; it's in their nature to hunt. Anyone who tells you otherwise is fooling themselves.

But why did I feel horrified if that's what cats do? Because of the conditioning that society has given me. There is a tendency for people to want to see things a certain way. Then, when they actually see the reality of the world, they are appalled at what really goes on, and then try to "fix" the world to fit their worldview.

What the hell are you talking about?

When people think of nature, I think they want to see a bambified version of it. They think about trees and flowers and butterflies and singing birds. They think about majestic mountains and rushing creeks. The yuppies are visiting the parks and wild places in droves, as it has become the "in" thing to do. They make gardens behind their homes, and take their children to manicured parks. Their version of nature is a soft, watery reflection of that nature is really like.

Along the same line, when these people think about predators and prey, they are most likely to think of the large African predators they see on the Discovery channel. What they don't think about is the fluffy, purring kitty sleeping in their bedroom.

About a year ago, there was a flap in one of the metro areas around here. We have a very serious deer problem; it's fairly common for people to hit or have near misses with deer all year round, not just during the rut. The deer have become pests; eating peoples' gardens, shitting on the patios, and creating major traffic hazards. So, the metro area was looking for a way to thin the deer herds.

Two suggestions were made. One, drop deer birth control tablets around the area, and hope that the female deer eat them before getting pregnant. Problem: it was expensive and not very efficient, and it would take years to see any effects of the program. Two: shoot the deer using sharp shooters. Problem: the tree huggers raised a fuss over deer being hunted within city limits (never mind that these were professional sharp-shooters who would target the female deer, and the venison would be donated to local homeless shelters).

While the two sides of this argument bickered back and forth, another problem appeared. Two children witnessed a coyote kill a fawn in the middle of a suburban street.

Immediately, a ruckus was raised. A coyote (never mind if it was the same one or not - there was no way to tell) was caught and put down. People started discussing trapping the coyotes and shipping them out of the city limits. "How can we sit by and watch these savage creatures hunting in our streets?" they cried.

Meanwhile, no one noticed that the coyote was helping with the deer population problem - for free.

These people wanted nature sanitized. They wanted it clean and safe and non-threatening. They wanted it to be bloodless. They wanted it bambified.

When I watch cities rip out empty lots, filled with trees and scrub, and put a man-made, cultivated park in its place, I wonder. I wonder how long it will take before we've tamed the entire world, made everything "safe" and "bloodless."

Meanwhile, I'll let the cats hunt the sputzies. It's in their nature.