As a child I crippled a bullfrog
Near broke his neck with a heaved stone
For years he swam lopsided in the creek
Beside grandfather’s home
Great old riverside man, forgive me
As a young man I bludgeoned spiders
Whacking them scuttling across my tatami
Putting them on display in bottles
Cursing them as my enemy
Great pest eating night spinners, forgive me
Something there is in human nature
That hates and kills the unknown
It is no wonder we abuse another
If they come from another home
Great heaving mass of humanity, may you learn humaneness
Then forgive and be forgiven
When I was working as a vet assistant I had to kill countless healthy cats and dogs. The pound and SPCA in St. John's couldn't handle the volume of animals that got dumped there so they were put down. This job was given to the vet-tech and an assistant. I can't tell you how many times I held a healthy,frightened animal in my hands and felt as it drew its very last breath, body going limp, eyes growing dull and the beat of its tiny heart so fast then so slow then nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteI left that life behind for this reason and this reason alone. I do not take the life of another living thing if I can possible help it. For this reason our house if FULL of spiders ( which I always liked) The only exception to this rule was having to get the wasps' nest exterminated that was being built in the sun room. ( I did try to tell them no wasps in the house) We have critter relocation program in this house and when I vacuum I am careful to let the spiders scuttle out of the way before I clear the webs.
In Switzerland I got bitten by a BIG spider hiding in the cup of my bra ( yes it bit my boob and I still have the scar - two tiny fang marks and no you can't see) I managed to not kill the little bugger and he was relocated to the garden, though he wasn't happy about this because it was raining. I have pictures...( of the spider)
Last weekend I found the body of a martin by the garage, newly dead by the smell and feel of it, I felt a sadness when I lifted its little limp body up and I buried him because it was the right thing to do.
I guess this makes me a bit of a nut job but all living things have the right to be alive and while I hate wasps with a passion I'd still rather catch them in a jar and release them when they wind up in the house than kill them.
Karma is a bitch and I incurred a lot as a vet-tech / assistant.