The most dangerous species on earth? Humans?

Today, I am writing this entry because I am continually shocked and disappointed by the way we (humans) treat our planet as a whole.

Although Oceanic Defense is an organization dedicated to healthy and balanced aquatic ecosystems there is a common thread of demise between both the aquatic realm and what happens here on terra firma.

Humans.

Why do we think that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, anytime we want and not think for a second of the impact our actions will have on future generations. What we do now affects our children, our grandchildren and so on. We wouldn't think of physically hurting our families but that is exactly what we are doing by not changing the way we treat our planet.

Today, I learned about something so disgusting, so immoral, so utterly disappointing that it made me lose just a little more hope that we can ever reverse the effects of what we have done to our planet.

I will not post pictures of this out of respect for your children that may be walking by your monitor as you read this but when you have some quiet time google: "Hanzhong city dog cull"

What you will see will break your heart, anger you and hopefully get you to act.

Here's what is going on in Hanzhong city, China:

There is a very large stray dog population in the city. These dogs have been abandoned by their owners or have simply run away from home or got lost. Some of these dogs are sick or have rabies. They roam the streets in search of food and shelter.

There is a sanctioned government program that approves the culling of these animals in an attempt to get them off the streets.

This is by no means a humane method or even a solution to this problem. The government solicits people (both men and women) to roam the streets with large sticks, clubs or bats and surround dogs as they wag their tails looking up with large eyes hoping for some contact. These despicable people then swing down on the dogs with repeated blows to the head as these defenseless animals scream in pain and try to drag themselves away from these barbarians on broken limbs.

Can you imagine treating our elders in such a way as they lay sick and dying in their nursing home beds?

I cannot believe the level of disrespect we have as humans towards the rest of the natural world. We will in fact destroy this world we live in because of ego. Because "we know best".

By all accounts we are the stupidest of species that have ever inhabited the earth. We have been here for the shortest period of time but caused the most amount of damage and continue to do so.

Paul Watson once said that "intelligence is the ability to live in harmony with our natural world." Well, if that is the case than that would just prove that we are indeed the stupidest of species.

To that end, as with anything in life it comes down to personal responsibility.

Take this into consideration and live by it: The true measure of our character is what we do when we think no one is watching...

But we as an organization are watching and we will continue to do so, more importantly, we will act. We are your Aquatic Army.

Jeff
OD