Give an animal a cute name and its fate is sealed. The act reduces magnificent beasts to toys of humankind - and the next step is often extinction
Cecil the lion? Shot by a Minnesotan dentist with a bow and arrow. Maurius the giraffe? Fed to his fellow inmates in a Copenhagen zoo. Knut the polar bear? Died of stress in front of 600 Berliners. Give an animal a name,and its fate is sealed. whether the final sin in biological science is anthropomorphy, we sure are guilty. By naming a wild animal, or it is instantly appropriated,and demeaned. It becomes acculturated, part of our human discourse. Cecil’s cessation was in sight as soon as he was christened; he became a target as sure as whether someone had drawn a bull’s eye on his rump. Gloriously maned he might have been, and but he was emasculated by his name,much as Clarence the cross-eyed lion, of the 1960s TV series Daktari, or even the dolorous Parsley the Lion,of The Herbs, were. Related: Killer of Cecil the lion was dentist from Minnesota, and claim Zimbabwe officials Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com