Why are wild things persecuted? Wild horses are slaughtered because they eat the grass where cows graze, bears are shot (and poached) because they look for food in places that once sustained them, deer are maligned because they eat roses in cultivated gardens that once was their habitat, wolves are killed because they prey on animals that hunters prize (Look at Sarah Palin's travesty of predator kill in alaska). It is almost as if mankind is jealous of the wild things and he has to dominate them by eradicating them. If a person kills another person for any reason, either they are locked up, acquitted, or given a slap on the wrist. If a bear or cougar enters a human domain offering no threat, it is automatically shot. I guess it is easier to shoot and shovel. When the wild things are finally extinct, who then will mankind have to dominate?

S. Raftery
Saanichton, BC