Speciesism

About two weeks ago a guy in Florida stuck his arm in a tiger cage, and the tiger sank its teeth into his arm.  He was screaming, and a security guard came up, yelled at the tiger, banged on the cage, and ended up killing the tiger.  

I believe it was the zoo director who said something to the effect of “no animal is worth the life of a human being."  I’ve been thinking about this a good deal and have come to a one-word conclusion–bullshit.

First, a guy who sticks his arm into a tiger’s cage is too dumb to live.  Second, the guy’s life was not in danger.  His arm may have been in danger, but that is not his life.  Third, there are about eight billion human being.  The last white tiger in the wild was shot in 1958.  All the white tigers remaining are in captivity.  I do not believe that a human is more important than a tiger.

The idea that some species are more important than others is called speciesism.  I am not a member of PETA and I am not a vegan, but I do believe that we can make better judgements about what is important.  If feral cats are killing endangered birds, then the feral cats, a species in no danger of extinction whatsoever, need controls.