I grew up on a big farm. I was a member of the FFA. I had show calves for the county 4H fair. I’ve cut hogs and slaughtered a chicken for Sunday dinner. It was expected that I would be a farmer just like by father, grandfather, neighbors, and friends. I ran off and joined the circus (US Navy) and never looked back.
Last night I’m in my yard watering the new grass and spraying broadleaf herbicide on some “over the winter” weeds that were not affected by the prevent I put down last month, when one of my neighbors came into my yard with her young daughter (preteen). She asked if I had grown up on a farm because she had heard from another neighbor that I had grown up in the mid-west. I said yes.
She tells me that her cat had a litter of kittens on Thursday morning. 6 kittens. Over the weekend she had started putting one of the kittens behind the couch in another room. If they put the kitten back with the litter the mother cat would move the kitten. Did I have any idea why the mother cat was doing that?
I told her to take the kitten to the vet immediately. The mother cat has sensed something wrong with the kitten, and her instincts were to abandon the kitten to protect the others. Resource management for a mother in the wild.
They were shocked at that answer. I don’t know if they heeded my advice or the outcome, but it made me think about Kristie Neom and her book. Nature is not the nice place that the tree huggers like to claim it is. Nature makes hard decisions with no after thought.
That’s not to say there aren’t things that should be left out of books, especially if you are in politics.
I grew up on a big farm. I was a member of the FFA. I had show calves for the county 4H fair. I’ve cut hogs and slaughtered a chicken for Sunday dinner. It was expected that I would be a farmer just like by father, grandfather, neighbors, and friends. I ran off and joined the circus (US Navy) and never looked back.
Last night I’m in my yard watering the new grass and spraying broadleaf herbicide on some “over the winter” weeds that were not affected by the prevent I put down last month, when one of my neighbors came into my yard with her young daughter (preteen). She asked if I had grown up on a farm because she had heard from another neighbor that I had grown up in the mid-west. I said yes.
She tells me that her cat had a litter of kittens on Thursday morning. 6 kittens. Over the weekend she had started putting one of the kittens behind the couch in another room. If they put the kitten back with the litter the mother cat would move the kitten. Did I have any idea why the mother cat was doing that?
I told her to take the kitten to the vet immediately. The mother cat has sensed something wrong with the kitten, and her instincts were to abandon the kitten to protect the others. Resource management for a mother in the wild.
They were shocked at that answer. I don’t know if they heeded my advice or the outcome, but it made me think about Kristie Neom and her book. Nature is not the nice place that the tree huggers like to claim it is. Nature makes hard decisions with no after thought.
That’s not to say there aren’t things that should be left out of books, especially if you are in politics.
Nature has nothing to do with shooting a puppy just because you don’t like it.
Nature is not the nice place that the tree huggers like to claim it is.
As something of a tree hugger, it never occurred to me that nature is suppose to be a nice place that isn’t overwhelming operating under the cold, feelingless pressure of natural selection largely absent anything that would pass for human morality.
That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if for much if not most of human history abandoning sick/disabled human infants was also routine and considered the “right” thing to do. Pretty sure we have plenty of evidence of that even in historical times.
I grew up on a big farm. I was a member of the FFA. I had show calves for the county 4H fair. I’ve cut hogs and slaughtered a chicken for Sunday dinner. It was expected that I would be a farmer just like by father, grandfather, neighbors, and friends. I ran off and joined the circus (US Navy) and never looked back.
Last night I’m in my yard watering the new grass and spraying broadleaf herbicide on some “over the winter” weeds that were not affected by the prevent I put down last month, when one of my neighbors came into my yard with her young daughter (preteen). She asked if I had grown up on a farm because she had heard from another neighbor that I had grown up in the mid-west. I said yes.
She tells me that her cat had a litter of kittens on Thursday morning. 6 kittens. Over the weekend she had started putting one of the kittens behind the couch in another room. If they put the kitten back with the litter the mother cat would move the kitten. Did I have any idea why the mother cat was doing that?
I told her to take the kitten to the vet immediately. The mother cat has sensed something wrong with the kitten, and her instincts were to abandon the kitten to protect the others. Resource management for a mother in the wild.
They were shocked at that answer. I don’t know if they heeded my advice or the outcome, but it made me think about Kristie Neom and her book. Nature is not the nice place that the tree huggers like to claim it is. Nature makes hard decisions with no after thought.
That’s not to say there aren’t things that should be left out of books, especially if you are in politics.
Agree. People have an idealized “Disney” tinted view of nature that’s in stark contrast with reality, and then they vote based on those unrealistic views.
I grew up in Montana and understand nature. Circle of life and all. I’m pretty comfortable making cold & calculated life and death decisions and deciding when to cut losses.
I hope you get out and meet more tree huggers because they are a fun outdoorsy crew, in my experience. The ones who go outside for adventures don’t stay naive for long, and I’m certain you will find common ground with them so long as you don’t act like a whiny city kid.
Kristi Noem is a big girl and can defend her actions, if they are defensible. Don’t worry about her.
but it made me think about Kristie Neom and her book.
Noem’s book doesn’t make me think about the hard realities of nature or farm life.
It makes me think about social media outrage-farming and career-climbing. Click generation to drive book sales. These are very much modern skills. She’s pretty good at them, but maybe flew a little too close to the sun on this one. Even hardened ranchers who put down animals daily may not be down with the weird social media titillating description of putting down a problematic dog with the emotions of hatred.
I have never met a tree hugger who doubted that nature can be cruel. They usually argue that humans should not be needlessly cruel.
Yeah, I’m giving AutomaticJack the benefit of the doubt that he meant something more like “city slicker” - someone 3 degrees removed from direct contact with nature. “Tree huggers” usually enjoy direct contact with nature.
I have never met a tree hugger who doubted that nature can be cruel. They usually argue that humans should not be needlessly cruel.
The problem is that the line of “needlessly cruel” is drawn in such a way that many common acts are deemed unacceptable.
I’m imagining the opening scene of Yellowstone where the Costner character shoots an injured horse in the head.
What the Costner charactner didn’t do was whip out a phone and start typing in, “Had to put down an injured horse on the side of the road!! Shot it in the head in a ditch! Can you hear the liberal media gasping!? Link to my book below.”
I have never met a tree hugger who doubted that nature can be cruel. They usually argue that humans should not be needlessly cruel.
The problem is that the line of “needlessly cruel” is drawn in such a way that many common acts are deemed unacceptable.
That is the nature of social debate. You and I don’t agree on certain examples of what should be acceptable in terms of alleged cruelty. We can disagree about Kristi Noem or rodeos. What you might see as common acts that are perfectly fine, others might see as common acts that are not ok.
The mere fact that these acts are “common” does not mean they are ok. Societies evolve and what was once common is later seen as abhorrent. Not saying that will happen with any specific issue; just saying that the fact that something is common today is not a defense to its morality.
My dad has been a farmer for his 80+ years. I’ve seen him cry when he had to put a cow down. I don’t think it’s normal to put a pet down and brag about it.
I have never met a tree hugger who doubted that nature can be cruel. They usually argue that humans should not be needlessly cruel.
Yeah, I’m giving AutomaticJack the benefit of the doubt that he meant something more like “city slicker” - someone 3 degrees removed from direct contact with nature. “Tree huggers” usually enjoy direct contact with nature.
Except when talking about the harshness of nature, his example is domestic cats, with his advice being to talk to a vet. All in defense of a puppy killer.