Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pro-AR blog laments success of wolves, grizzlies

It is sometimes said that animal rights really isn't about animals at all. A recent post, ironically titled "The Betrayal of Wildlife" on the blog of the rather bizarre, pro-AR All-Creatures.org website seems to confirm this. In these comments, the blogger laments the reintroduction of wolves and the expansion of the grizzly bear in the American wilderness. Why would someone who claims to care about animals decry a conservation success story that is unfolding before our very eyes? Simple. She is opposed to hunting. She is showing opposition to the return of top predators to their rightful place in the ecosystem simply because somewhere down the line, should these animals increase their numbers to a large, sustainable population, God forbid, a hunter might shoot one, and we just can't let that happen. You see, with this blogger, it isn't about animals and what is best for them. It's about ideological purity. She is so intellectually entrenched in her opposition to hunting that she would rather see two magnificent creatures that are symbols of wilderness continue in their threatened state, rather than be returned in significant numbers to ecosystems in which they have a rightful place and fill an important role. How warped, myopic and inane, not to mention selfish, is that kind of thinking? It blows the mind. It absolutely blows the mind. I don't think it can be stressed enough that with some ARAs, it really isn't about animals. It IS about themselves and their self-serving ideological purity. It's not hunters nor conservationists that betray wildlife, it's the myopic, self-serving, absolutist attitude of some of the hardcore ideologues in the AR movement.

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