The Florida Bear Hunt
Before I begin, many of the people who frequent my blog will not like this post. Many who read this will be expecting my opinion to be on a certain side. I will warn you, that on this issue, it is not how it seems. With that out of the way, let us begin.
Let me begin by saying I DO NOT OPPOSE the bear hunting in Florida.
Still with me? I bet few are but now that I have scared away most of my readers I will explain the reasoning for my post.
Nature is very effective at what it does. It creates a balancing act that takes each and every variable into account. Climate change? Nature is adapting. Humans cutting down the trees? Nature is adapting. Vegans causing animal overpopulation and starvation? Nature is taking that into account too.
But humans are part of this nature of balance and that begins us on our way to understanding the truth of this bear hunt. In this case, the bears of Florida are too high for their numbers to adapt without many of them dying. And nature has taken into account that humans kill animals when they intrude on territory.
Saying that humans should set aside more land for the animals is great and all, but our own population will have trouble adapting to that. In reality, the choice with the bears is a slow death as well as the potential for them to harm other populations of animals (including humans) as they scavenge for an ever decreasing food supply.
So whether we kill them, or nature does it, the bears will die. this is not some horrible sin on our part. Its just the reality of life. Life is not some black and white fairy tale where there is a right answer that is clearly better than the others. Real life is Blue and Orange, Green and Red, Purple and Yellow. Morality is nothing more than perspective.
Nature will come up with a way to control the human population in given time. Bu it is our obligation to help protect the bears from their own overpopulation. Its not pretty, its not kind. But life is neither of these things. Life is filled with opportunists who shoot the bears that are pregnant instead of the ones that are not. Its filled with sadists who drown themselves in the blood of their kills. But it is also filled with humans who do what they think is right and as a result, bring nothing but more ruin to the world.
Time down the road, I believe, will indicate, that despite how foul this deed appears, it will benefit the bears as well as Florida’s ecosystems in general.