Who is the gangland killer, some humans or the animals?

At the turn of the previous century, there were approximately 200 000 lions in Africa. Now there are about 30 000 left of an original population of millions.
Each year, as humans encroach on their wild territory and conflicts arise between the needs of an ever-expanding human population and the Lions whose territory is being invaded, the situation of the lion grows more and more precarious. Once ranging as far afield as the British Isles , Europe, the Near East and Asia, the lion‘s worldwide range has shrunk by 80% of what it used to be.

At least 3000 lions are killed by Africans and by big game hunters from the USA and European countries as ‘trophies’, each year. These big brave hunters usually pay handsome sums of cash to canned hunting facilities where captive-bred lions are released into a small restricted area where there is no chance of escape and hunted with high calibre weapons equipped with telescopic sights. In one instance, hunters equipped with bows shot a single lion 17 times before merciful death.

The leopard is also toted as a ‘man-killer’ yet no accurate data is available to support or justify these claims. One will find in Wikipedia that the most graphic accounts of man-eating big cats were written during the period of imperial colonialist rule and are highly exaggerated. This is probably to detract from the fact that humans kill big cats for their ego, for trophies and for their fur, and that the only reason for a cat to attack humans is because the cat is directly threatened by humans encroaching on their living space.
By 1969 over 50 000 leopards were being slaughtered each year, mainly so that really sick and twisted humans can wear their skins for ‘fashion’ - and though there aren’t so many leopards left over in the wild currently, countries such as Tanzania allow 500 leopards to be killed each year, even though studies showed that this would have a harmful impact on the remaining population..

It is only the tiger, lion and leopard of all the great cats which are documented actually killing a very few people. The jaguar, snow leopard and even the cougar are accused of being potential ’man-killers’ ; yet almost no data is available to support these sensationalized claims.

The only ‘evidence’ of wolves killing human beings wholesale is medieval in origin and otherwise completely unsupported by hard evidence.

The tiger, accused of being a man-killer by nature, kill around 3 people per year. One must compare this with the centuries of slaughter which has left the Tiger a critically endangered species clinging to survival. Given this, the killing continues at a rate of 5000 tigers each year, for the fur trade and for ‘traditional medicine’. Again, reports dating from the 1800’s and earlier are grossly over-exaggerated, mainly due to an attempt at justifying wholesale colonial extermination of the world’s wildlife, for the gentleman’s sport and pleasure.
The tiger ‘s natural habitat is disappearing as the human population expands and so with no more natural prey, the tiger often finds sheep, cattle and goats an attractive alternative. This causes conflict, and it is the tiger on the losing end of this ongoing confrontation.

Bears are accredited with app.130 fatal attacks on humans in the USA from the 1830’s onwards. This may sound excessive, yet when one takes into account how many people there are in the USA and how many bears are deliberately hunted down and killed every year by hunters then these statistics appear in perspective. Especially when approximately 100 000 bears are murdered by hunters and fur traders every year in the USA. So that’s around 200 million bears since 1830 and counting.
200 million - humans; 130 , bears - that’s the scorecard.

There are no recorded fatal attacks on humans by any of the hyena species, and the polar bear is accused of killing 2 people in the 1800’s and according to available data, are responsible for ‘less than one fatal attack on humans per year’

The shark is highlighted as a savage man-killer in the media, yet fatalities are rare, with human beings not tasting very good to sharks which are used to eating cleaner prey. Official statistics prove that between 100 and 270 MILLION sharks are slaughtered by humans every year in comparison to the 5 humans killed by sharks each year worldwide...yet every occasional shark attack is sensationalized and the shark is made out to be the mass murderer.

Snakes do not deliberately attack human beings as prey, only out of self-defence. There is actually more chance of being struck by lightning than to be bitten by a snake with fatal consequences - as worldwide there is more than enough opportunity to obtain anti-venom and the appropriate medical treatment.
Reports of snakebites in India are completely over-exaggerated by the media; however due to human encroachment on their territories, people and snakes come into contact far more frequently nowadays, resulting in forced confrontation.

Wild animals only kill to eat and to feed their offspring, or if there is no chance of escape or evasion, they will defend themselves and their ancestral territories as a last option. Animals have learned the hard way that human beings can be dangerous, merciless, cruel and soul-less predators and will do anything to avoid contact with what has become the world’s ultimate savage gangland killer.

Within every human being there is a spark of goodness waiting to come out and shine, an event which animals wait patiently for. And in the meanwhile we’ll have to understand and excuse them all for having no trust in any human to begin with.

A major TV channel focuses on sharks, sharks and more sharks, highlighting the dangerous threat which sharks evidently pose to people, and every effort is made to sensationalize the occasional test bite which a shark takes out of curiosity from a surfer or swimmer; and animals in general are described on the channel as very dangerous and equipped for assault among other carefully selected metaphorical descriptions likening animals to human murderers, gangsters and killers.

Hardly any documentaries feature coral reef fish, seahorses or any animal which isn’t potentially dangerous and a ‘threat’ to people.
When will they learn that animals are no less divine than humans; and that humans alone kill purely for ego and profit while animals just are - they live in a very different environment, and kill only for food and for self-defence.

It is almost as if these programmers wish to excuse the Animal Holocaust by doing everything possible to demonize animals and Nature in general.
Let’s consider the effect that repetitive scenes of violence in any form, accompanied by biased commentary worthy of a Pulitzer prize in propaganda-speak and music carefully chosen to doom and frighten has on the human psyche, especially that of young children - Nature is now seen as violent, destructive , vicious and mean, so don’t get close to Her, seems to be the message they are trying to put across.

Why not focus rather on real concerns, such as global heating and environmental pollution, interspersed with shows on all of the other animals who don’t show unstable behavior unless confronted by human beings, threatened and deliberately interfered with?

Another really sick way in which pro-hunting and anti-environmental interests excuse their macho, sadistic, cruel and criminal activities is to argue that hunting is an industry that creates jobs and that hunters actually conserve Nature. How is hunting conserving Nature? By increasing the demand for heavy weapons and ammunition, or by supporting munitions factories? Or is it by exploiting animals to get rich so that one day when there are no more Lions or Tigers or Rhinos to hunt, at least the murderers will have a lion head on their trophy wall of death to remind us of what used to be?

And the sad fact of the matter is that this is a man-thing yet again. Men are still being brought up to believe in the outdated and fear-based values of patriarchy, where animals are soul-less and their lives mean nothing, except in monetary terms. Where the gun maketh the man, where might is right and violence is the end means.
And that’s why many world governments continue to allow the hunting industry to be the main financial support for game reserves, instead of funding game preserves themselves. Mind, buying the latest toys of mass destruction are a higher priority than saving the planet, it seems to the casual uneducated observer.

Real men such as the Lion whisperer and the Bondi vet love and respect animals, and don’t need a gun to prove their manhood. What does that leave? Cowards hiding behind a gun, who have to kill a harmless and innocent animal to prove their manhood; or those who delight in the use of words and sensationalism to kill just as effectively.

Choose the side of Life, and join the fight for our home, Mother Earth.
Blessed Be