The death of Taylor Mitchell is the most recent example of the fantasy we teach our children that ends up getting them killed. The 19 year old folk singer was hiking the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia alone when she was attacked by two coyotes. Another hiker came to her aid when he heard her screams but couldn’t save her. She died from her wounds the next day.
Her death, a tragedy on so many levels, could have been avoided altogether if she had just had someone with her. Predators will usually avoid attacking unless they have a clear advantage.
I don’t know what Miss Mitchell was thinking or if she properly planned her outing or had any foreknowledge that there were reports of aggressive animals in the area. What I do know is that anytime you plan to step into the wilderness, even one with trails, you have to plan for the worst and expect the best.
My point goes a bit deeper and broader, though, into the mindset of modern western culture.
I guess it started with the Disney movies, Bambi and the like, where the humanization of animals was portrayed. If you draw a baby rabbit with big, blue eyes, cuddly, wuddly fur and a child’s voice, you can’t help but love it. Unfortunately, rabbits and nature in reality aren’t like that.
Scenarios like Miss Mitchell’s play out every year in the U.S. and Canada with much the same results. People, brought up and taught that all animals, except the scary ones can be petted and loved and held, venture out into national parks and wide open spaces and leave all common sense behind. They are abruptly confronted with the stark reality that what they were taught by their parents and TV was grossly exaggerated.
People and the natural world have always been at odds with one another and have competed for space, food and territory. In the pioneer days and before, Native Americans, mountain men and settlers understood that wild animals could kill you. Therefore they had guns or bows and arrows or at least a knife with them to dissuade or dispatch the errant beast.
What, then, has changed? In nature, nothing. Bears forage, mate and hibernate. Birds fly south, squirrels make nests and beavers build dams. In short, as before, they remain wild.
In the modern western mind, however, lots has changed. Dulled by years of TV and sob stories of poor, defenseless animals being forced out of their habitat, covered in oil and pummeled for their fur, we have forgotten that we are at the top of the food chain in a dangerous, natural world. We have been provided food in abundance, prepackaged and laid out neatly in grocery store isles without the slightest hint that living creatures were killed and processed for our consumption. We have gone from a society that provided for itself by hunting and farming to one that is dependent on the system to provide for it. Moreover, we were and our children are being taught that we are to blame and need to “save” nature.
Turn on Nick Jr. sometime and listen to what the shows are about. I know, balancing kids and work along with your personal life is a challenge, but just for fun, listen. Almost to a show, animals are portrayed exhibiting human characteristics. Dora the Explorer, Diego and Wonder Pets are all about saving lost or trapped baby animals. Now while I realize these are just silly cartoons, they do have an impact on the tiny minds watching them.
The sophistry that former VP Al Gore has successfully promoted in his global warming dogma about polar bears losing their ice is equally damaging. He has so helped convince a generation that man is and will damage an ecosystem as enormous and complex as Earth’s that they are willing to write laws and impose regulations on themselves based on nothing more than a vain religion. Try letting a Christian get away with that.
The entertainment industry is all on board with this line of thinking because the more they humanize animals and dehumanize humans, the more money they make. Sadly, business has gone along with the whole idea of saving the environment because they, like government, only respond to the imaginations of the society they exist in instead of leading it to the proper conclusions.
Our history is littered with the remains of people that thought they knew more, cared more and were invincible to the realities of the natural world. Timothy Treadwell tempted fate by living among giant grizzly bears in Alaska. He was successful for a while but in the end he and his girlfriend were killed by the bears he worshipped. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, whom I admired and believe did great work showing the world not only his exuberance for but the absolute wonder of the natural world and the animals that inhabit it, met an untimely death by getting too close to a stingray which reacted as it normally would by defending itself.
I am constantly amazed by people that, wanting to commune with nature, put themselves and their families in danger by driving, hiking or biking into bear country unarmed and unprotected. I am also confounded by townships and municipalities that allow wild animals to wander their streets unfettered and worse, unintimidated by humans. This behavior on their part has only invited danger and cost humans injury and in some cases, their lives. As the top of the food chain, we, as the bears would if they were in charge, must defend our boundaries and eliminate intrusion by interloping wildlife.
As the top of the food chain, it is not only our necessity but our responsibility to protect ourselves, our dogs,(in the case of Jessica Simpson) and our families. We need to teach our children the realities of nature and the animals contained therein and not allow TV to teach them carelessness and fantasy. About the only people currently doing this are the hunters and the farmers who, in case all hell breaks lose, will be the only one that can fend for themselves and be able to defend the country.
I mourn the death of Taylor Mitchell and offer my sincerest condolences to her family, friends and fellow musicians. It is very sad that such a beautiful young woman perished under the circumstances in which she did. It is important to remember this incident and others like it and teach our young ones the truths of nature and common sense that will help them live full lives and not become a prey.
