By BONNIE ERBE
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Two animal stories caught my eye this week that prove, once again, when it comes to nature, mankind reasons in retrograde.
The first story is about the Florida Manatee, a gentle, vegetarian, sui generis species that Florida officials want to downgrade from "endangered" to "threatened." As per usual, lucre reigns supreme and animals take the hit.
Manatees' numbers have grown in recent years ---- amazing that these aquatic mammals the size of heifers have flourished even as Florida's human population reached historic proportions. This represents yet another small accomplishment by the environmental movement that industry is using to try to roll back what few protections these animals have, in favor of unfettered, wonton environmental destruction.
The Associated Press reports, "An annual census of manatees recorded 2,812 of the animals in Florida waters this year. In 1991 -- the survey's first year -- 1,267 manatees were found in the state. But the method for counting the mammals has always been controversial, and its results questioned."
Meanwhile, what the Associated Press does not tell you about is the explosion of human population in Florida during that same period. The state's Office of Economic and Demographic Research reports that in 1991 there were more than 13 million people living in the state. Some 19 million live there now. Let's see, that means the state can accommodate an influx of 6 million humans, but an additional 1,400 manatees is too many.
The Associated Press quotes Ken Stead, executive director of the Southwest Florida Marine Industries Association as saying, "Manatees do not suffer from a lack of protection." The boating lobby resents lower speed limits put in place to help manatees avoid deadly contact boat propellers.
The animals only receive this protection as long as they remain on the endangered list. Despite claims the species is in fine shape, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist noted in a letter some 417 of the animals were killed last year, with boat propeller injuries the leading cause of death. Crist has asked the state's wildlife commission to delay the decision to downgrade the manatees' status until December.
The second story ran in the New York Times and it wasn't so much the story that was riling, but the headline that accompanied it. The story was about a husband-and-wife team of researchers studying baboons in Africa. Among other things, the researchers have, "tested baboons' knowledge of where everyone stands in the (troupe) hierarchy. In a typical interaction, a dominant baboon gives a threat grunt, and its inferior screams .... Baboons pay little attention when a normal interaction is played to them but show surprise when they hear the fabricated (pre-taped and edited) sequence implying their social world has been turned upside down."
Using video and audio technology, the researchers have quantified the fact that baboons have a hierarchical and very logical social structure. But the headline read, "How Baboons Think (Yes, Think)" as if it were a surprise that primates are capable of thought.
In fact, the headline writer is probably all too correct in the assumption that most people don't realize animals think or feel, nor that they are often logical and extremely communicative. As one who spends a lot of time around animals (seven horses and three dogs) I am constantly amazed at how ignorant my fellow humans are about animals. Yet humans attribute the ignorance to the animals rather than to themselves.
A friend once tried to explain to me why when an animal is slaughtered, it doesn't experience pain in the same way that humans do. She was absolving herself from engaging in cruelty by eating meat. She and I grew up together in New York City. I responded that it was also true Manhattanites who are slaughtered don't experience pain as deeply as people from New Jersey. She looked at me in shock. I said, "There, do you see the lack of logic in your claim?"
The manatee story shows how some among us never miss a chance to stick it to animals. The second shows how far we are from understanding our fellow creatures. Society is making progress in both regards, but ever so slowly.
(Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail bonnieerbe(at)CompuServe.com.)
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