The other day I was watching a TV feature about orang-utans. It concerned the efforts of some lady (bless her) to organise a Forestry School for baby orang-utans that had been orphaned by the prevailing practice of de-afforestation by the usual capitalists out to make bigger bucks…
It appears that “The Old Man of The Forest” is getting in the way as profit-hungry developers fell the towering trees that are so necessary to the survival of this wonderful, almost-human creature. And, because he is getting in the way, the creature himself is being annihalated at the same time…!
The TV feature showed one example of a baby orang-utan who had lost lost a hand whilst suckling at it’s mother’s breast. It was the baby’s misfortune to be in the way in the way as a developer’s worker lashed out with a machete and killed the baby’s mother…
I believe it is palm oil - amongst other things – that seems to be the attraction as the current, money-hungry developer decimates the forests. Apparently, palm oil is used in all sorts of consumer products. Foodstuffs, for instance. And shampoo. And, no doubt, any number of cosmetics. And “plantations” are needed to produce the necessary palm oil…
Just one or two more reasons for our sorely-needed forests speedily being laid to waste…
People such as the lady ( I wish I could remember her name…) who is doing her best to counteract the devastation being caused to the orang-utans by Big Business’s greed for “growth” and “progress” , is probably fighting a losing battle. Nevertheless, she and her staff – compassionates who live locally, some who have young babies of their own – are working like mad to teach the young orphan orang-utans how to survive in what is being left of the forests, hence the Forest School.
They say that orang-utans have 99% of the make-up that produces a human being. And to watch these tiny youngsters behave as they do with their carers is just like watching a class of human toddlers happily playing in a children’s nursery. My heart turns over…
The next day, I watched another TV feature showing the crestfallen faces of US beekeepers whose incomes from their businesses is being affected by the deteriorating efforts of their honey – and money – producers. It seems that the bees are not producing as prolifically as they used to, and the beekeepers are desperate to find out why.
Is it some new disease or other? Some of the experts consulted shrugged their shoulders and admitted that it could be some kind of new disease, and that there would have to be some research carried out.
But I sat up when one silver-haired consultant voiced the opinion that the bees were being treated “unnaturally”.
He commented that in all probability the bees themselves objected to the type of “homes” they were forced to live and breed and produce in. There they were, crowded into boxes designed by the human to suit the human’s purposes; regimented trays that can be lifted in and out to the (human) heart’s content; disturbed in their busy activities whenever it suits the human to have a look at what the bees have produced, so far.
And he probably hit the nail on the head when this wise old veteran commented that the bees possibly didn’t like being transported thousands of miles from their natural environment, as does happen when it is considered that such emigration may be necessary to induce better production…
Now, the ever-popular Dog Show. The famous Crufts, having moved from London to my own city’s National Exhibition Centre and about to open up for this year’s show, reminds me that recently, apparently, there has been some kind of investigation regarding the questionable activities of dog breeders, as they try to improve the “looks” of their dogs for exhibition purposes.
I have come across references to such activities before. There was the one concerning the breeders’ desire to “slope” the back of the German Shepherd. To do this entailed some kind of technique that caused a leg deformity that sharpened the angle of the dogs’ hind-leg elbow. This drew down it’s hind quarters and, therefore, caused it’s back to slope – which is exactly what the breeders desired.
The only trouble is that, now, there is an enhanced tendency for German Shepherds to suffer the onset of arthritis in their hind legs…
Another problem that has recently been brought to light is that caused to the good old British Bulldog. It seems that the Bulldog’s flattened facial features - which, I understand, have been bred into this particular dog over many years – cause the poor animal to suffer from breathing problems.
I heard one Bulldog breeder call the difficult breathing theory a “load of codswallop”. But, then, he would, wouldn’t he…?!
And I have no need to mention the poaching of animals in Africa, have I? Elephants have suffered greatly over the last century as “hunters” shot them to death in the name of “sport”. Poachers did the same to them in order to strip them of their tusks for the profitable trade in ivory.
The hippopotamus had to suffer, too, because it’s horn was a phallic symbol. Ground down into powder and made into a potion, the horn apparently offered some kind of sexual enhancement to the more ignorant Far-Eastern peasant.
And so to the tiger. This unfortunate animal appears to be the medical mainstay of the Chinese apothacary who produce – amongst other concoctions - such medicines as “Tiger Balm”, whatever that happens to be…!
So it goes on – all this human interference into the life of the animal kingdom.
And what a hell of a mess mankind is making of the planet…! This constant urge to manifest the magic words” growth”, and “progress”, have already produced some kind of change in the climate; local councils are panic-stricken in their urgent need to find some new technology to relieve them of the necessity for landfills, of places to dump all the rubbish that their citizens create with impunity.
Yet we tend to blame the animals for the occasional mess they make in our parks and open spaces. But have you looked at the fish and chip papers and the takeaway cartons that litter the streets and – yes! – the parks and open spaces… ?
Have you looked at the state of our beaches, and the banks of our rivers, where fishermen have left lengths of nylon line and abandoned fish-hooks to be swallowed down by swans and other river birds…?
And talking about rivers, only this morning did I hear a radio report about poachers who raid Scotland’s rivers not just for salmon, but fresh-water mussels!
These scavengers are still at it, even though it is now illegal. In the past mussel-beds have been decimated by by money-grubbers prising open the shells of the living animals in the search for pearls. High Street jewellers used to welcome these mussel-bed raiders with open arms as the pearls provided quite a lucrative trade.
Now, since it is against the law for jewellers to accept the pearls, it is collectors who provide these raiders with their filthy lucre…
I could go on and on. But I leave you with this thought:
Which lifeform do you suppose is the biggest pest on this planet…?
