where to draw the line?

[Guest guest]

Chris W wrote:

On a similar note, how many other list-members have some troublereconciling the fact that they kill lots of things every time they goout in the car or mow the lawn? I do feel pangs of conscience wheninsects hit my windscreen, but what can you do?

I think we have to stop our sentimentality taking over! Accidents happen and everything dies. I just do what I can to avoid and minimise my unintentional harm to other life forms, but I do draw a line on condition of my safety (god I hate that word) and that of my animals, then the harm is intentional, natural and instinctive.

For two years running my dogs were ambushed by a swarm of wasps (one dog had accidentally disturbed their nest). One dog had them inbedded deep in his fur, all over him and he was in pain. So I got Zimba to jump in the river and I could see wasps flying away as he was in the water. But even though I got him to keep going back into it, most of the wasps would not let go. I couldn't pull them off as I had no gloves or anything. I tried to tease them out with a stick, but there was just too many. We just had to get back to the car, a ten minute walk, and get home. As we walked Zim was getting really slow and I thought he might collapse. When we got home I took the grooming comb through his coat to get each wasp out and stamped on them one by one, hating them for nearly killing my dog. I counted over 30 wasps, and that was only a fraction of the amount which had stung him. The following year it was one of the other dogs and I got stung too.

The flea problem is another with which I can easily draw the line from my compassion. Intestinal worms another. Even the bacteria we acquire when we're ill and our medicines, allopathic or alternative kill them in one way or another.

I dont go out and hunt wasps, invading their rights to live in their own habitats and when they come in the house I catch them and put them back outside, but when they, or fleas or anything else threatens my survival I simply take measures to defend myself, as any other animal will.

Pandora

~~ info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Please remember that the above is only the opinion of the author, there may be another side to the story you have not heard.---------------------------Was this message Off Topic? Did you know? Was it snipped?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guidelines: visit <site temporarily offline>Un: send a blank message to -