Let me begin by stating that I too feel for the senseless slaughter of animals.  My Judeo-Christian values stress that we respect all life since all life emanates from God.  That means that the animals which we consume need to be killed with as much respect as possible before they get to our tables.

 

I read an article on NPR entititled, Chronicling The Virunga Gorilla Murders by Brent Stirton (June 23, 2008).  I had heard the title announced on the NPR broadcast in the morning and found it troubling.  The death of an animal may be described as a killing, a slaugther, sacrifice, etc.  It must not be referred to as murder.  Murder is the taking of another person's life.  Animals are not people and we should not confuse them as such.  They may be beloved pets or endangered species but ultimately they are only animals.

 

We, as humans, with our ability to think, not just instinctually, but with human sophistry and with a moral perspective, are above animals. 

 

In the 1980s I listened to The Smiths.  Their seminal album was called Meat Is Murder.  Though I enjoyed their music, even then, as an impressionable young man, did not buy into the radical philosophy which that title and Morrissey's (the lead singer) opinion put forth.

 

More recently we have seen the PETA ad which equated the killing of chickens with the holocaust.  Such intellectual barbarity cannot be allowed to stand.  My hope is that any thinking or moral person would look at that ad and see it for what it is, garbage.  Complete and utter garbage.  It is not only a defamation of the Jewish people, but of all human life.  My life has a greater impact in the world than that of a chicken.  My fear is that many may have agreed or at least 'felt' the message of the ad.

 

We have seen the opposite labeling of the murderers which have massacred people in schools and shopping malls.  In these circumstances the term used to describe them is 'shooters'.  Shooters may describe what you do at the state fair to win some prizes, but it does not describe the devastating act committed by these local terrorists.  It is just a troubling to have them added in the count of the victims of the crime they themselves perpetrated.

 

We heard similar reactions and sentiments in the tiger mauling in the San Francisco zoo last year.  Many felt the victims of the attack deserved it for having taunted the tiger.  That's quite a price to pay for having done something silly.  This discussion helped to detract the conversation about how the animal came to escape it's holding structure.  The clincher came when newspaper articles listed the tiger's name while not listing the names of the human victims.

 

In the article on the Virunga gorillas, the author went on to describe the scene where the gorillas were being removed from the jungle.  "I've never seen that degree of stoicism, or sobriety, or somberness... even when people were collecting the bodies of humans, when I've seen massacre sites."  The killing of these gorillas was near Rwanda where hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were murdered like animals.  That the author interprets the reaction as more somber than the Rwandan genocide is deeply troubling, if not the mere interpretation then perhaps the actual reaction by those Africans who were removing the dead gorillas.

Language is important.  It helps us to become comfortable or uncomfortable with people, places or events in the world.  Let's confine murder to the taking of life of another human, not an animal.

 

God Bless