A Rational Take on Gators
Kudos to the Washington Post’s Peter Whoriskey, who updated the country about Florida alligators in a way that doesn’t make you feel obligated to hop into your pick-up truck, hunt down a gator, wrestle her to the ground, rope her, and kill her . . . for the safety of your neighborhood.
In From State Icon to Neighborhood Nuisance, Whoriskey reports that Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission is considering alterations to its existing alligator management policies that include changing the legal status of gators from "species of special concern" to "game" (read: we’ll be able to kill more of them, and more often).
You can review the history of this issue beginning with Animal Person’s most recent post: Results of Alligator Survey (which includes the actual results), and then work your way backward to:
- my intro to the survey
- one trapper’s delight in killing gators
- inappropriate use of force against alligators
- Crusty the gator gets a "reprieve"
- how feeding alligators leads to their slaugher (shocker!)
There’s more, but I’m sure that provides sufficent history for anyone who doesn’t live in Florida. This isn’t just a Florida issue, though. Substitute bears, deer, kangaroo, or elephants, depending on where in the world you live. The net message? We have encroached on their land. And in some cases, we’re stupid enough to habituate them to us by approaching them and feeding them. I can’t imagine that killing them on sight is the right thing to do, or that it’ll solve the problem.
Because the problem is–us. We must change our attitudes and behaviors, and accept that we are just part of an enormous ecosystem. Contrary to our belief, we’re not the boss of them. Our challenge isn’t to conquer the Earth and its inhabitants. I think we’ve got conquering down pat, and it’s not pretty. Our challenge is co-existence and respect of everyone’s place in the system, because that involves the use of restraint and the use of the strategic thinking skills we’re so proud of.
Let’s use those skills and educate Americans that killing isn’t the answer to our problems.
