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A Dream for a Future with Alternative Energy
"America has become a vassal state to OPEC. Our military men and women are offered as a serf army to the OPEC nations. We use billions of US tax dollars and the blood of our soldiers to preserve the power of these unpopular governments. Wind...
Create an environmentally friendly shopping policy
These days, buying green products does not mean sacrificing your quality of life or needing to become a hippy. There are many high quality environmental products which are better for the environment and your health. Today, you have far more options...
Experience the Thrill of Eagle Watching
"Above all other birds it is the soaring eagle, with its size and weight, that gives the most abiding impression of power and purpose in the air," declared Edwin Way Teale in Atlantic Monthly in 1957. Unique to North America and revered for its...
Saving the Endangered New Zealand Brown Teal - What's happening out in the field
Mimiwhangata, Northland from Emma Neill
* As at 07-Nov-05, 31 birds (14 ad F; 7 ad M; 6 juv F; 2 juv M;
2 unk sex juv) are fitted with transmitters. * Juveniles: 10
juveniles of the 2005 season have been radio-tagged so far, with
more...
Wild Turkey Facts
Re-printed with permission.
Imagine going on a turkey hunt only to find there are no wild
turkeys! It sounds far fetched, but in the early 1930s this
grand game bird was on the verge of extinction. But today,
thanks to hunters and wildlife...
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Life . . . It's Beautiful
She grazes peacefully in a small open area. The air is crisp
with just a slight chill. The beauty of the turning leaves
sparking with frost in the early morning sunlight seems to
compliment her beauty. Her tawny fur is now turning to a more
somber grayish tone winter coat. She gracefully moves as she
grazes and gently moves her busy tail allowing tuffs of white
fur to peak out from underneath it. Behind a screen of burnt
amber, a young buck stands contentedly watching his sleek
delicate mate. Occasionally she gracefully lifts her head,
twitches a velvety ear, looks up toward him with large soft dark
brown eyes, and her cute black nose tests the air for signs of
danger. His thoughts wander to the cedar grove they will find as
they move deeper into the forest. It will be a warm secure place
for the two of them to yard up when the snows come, and in the
spring they can begin a family. Sometime around May she will
bear her first fawn, maybe even twins. Her life expectancy is
fifteen to twenty years and she may bring as many as thirty-one
beautiful creatures like herself into this world. She lifts her
head again ready to trot up beside her mate, but her nostrils
are now stinging with the scent of danger. Fear and panic
wrestle to take control of her once peaceful mind. Every muscle
in her body becomes tense as adrenalin rushes in. Her ears stand
erect and her tail goes up revealing all of the white fur. She
is briefly taken over by confusion as she desperately tries to
decide in which direction lays her escape route. She leaps with
her front legs stretched out to carry her to safety, but it is
too late. The deadly crack of gunfire shatters the peaceful
silence, pain surges into her mind, and her limp body falls to
the cold ground. The buck feels helpless as he sees his mate now
lying in the grass with her life force oozing into the earth. He
flees in terror filled with a sense of loss. She will bear no
spotted fawn in the spring and never again will her slender body
move gracefully through the woodlands. It took months to create
her life, but only a few painful minutes to snuff it out. And
for what? I understand a life being ended to provide the needed
food and clothing for a family. I wonder though how much of that
fallen deer's body is actually used for food and clothing. I was
told by a hunter, "You only get a few steaks from a deer anyway,
and now as I an older I cannot see anyone taking the life of
such a beautiful creature for just a few steaks". I have never
met a person that turned the deer's hide into clothing. Perhaps
like me most people feel the fur looks better on the animal, but
if not used for clothing what happens to the hide. I hear
complaints about deer destroying gardens. I once found a deer
taking a chunk out of one of my pumpkins. I was not happy, but
then I laughed as he spit it out and stomped out of the garden
as if to say if you cannot plant anything better, I am out of
here. He had disfigured the pumpkin but given me a story
to tell
that always brings a smile. Later I had a beautiful flowering
bush stripped to bare branches overnight. Again nature provided
balance. In payment for the flowers and leaves, which grew back,
I was given a performance of a pair of fawn twins resembling
human preteens first learning to dance. Their mother perhaps was
a bit frustrated at their prancing antics, but I was thoroughly
entertained. The entertainment stretched out from their white
spots slowly being replaced with tawny fur to changing to a
grayish winter coat, which on those two could never be called
somber. In my flower and herb gardens a few flowers
disappeared, but I received payment. I wished I owned a video
camera as a doe chased a cat away from the bird feeder. I wished
it again when the next day not to be outdone by his mother a
fawn chased a duck away from the cracked corn. The flowers and
leaves if not eaten fall off as the seasons change and are
forgotten. The smiles given to me by the deer, even if I am not
lucky enough to catch on film, are mine to keep always. I have
seen cars drive by with a lifeless body draped over the hood. I
think of the buck watching his mate's life being ended, and
wonder what the hunter will do with the limp body if the meat
has been left too long to be safe to eat. I suppose those
hunters can always pay a taxidermist to stuff the head to be
hung on a wall. If would seem that fate would better fit an
animal that has accidentally had its life ended on a highway.
Last spring, a bobcat because of food in the woods being scare
attacked a domestic cat. So where does that leave the theory
that hunters are needed to control the deer population? Would
not the animals such as bobcats control the population if man
killed only when food is needed? Each creature fulfills its own
important role in keeping the population of all woodland
creatures regulated, until man turns the woodlands into shopping
malls and resorts. The moose I read about who tried to check out
the local shopping was tranquilized and removed. The more land
that is designated to be left in its natural state the more
chances wildlife has to form its own checks and balances. If all
hunting and fishing were banned and people began enjoying the
beauty of seeing living creatures in the wild perhaps the value
of all life would be seen. The human population might even look
upon each other a little more kindly. This may sound like an
ideological dream, but would it not be a beautiful reality if
all guns were laid to rest? Stop and think, is there anything
more precious than life in any form?
About the author:
I am Gendai Reiki-ho and Komyo Reiki Shihan, and Herbalist. I
periodically place photographs of wildlife seen around my home
on my website www.naturalhealinglearning.com. The deer twins
will be uploaded shortly. This article is slightly revised from
the article I wrote, with the same title, which was published in
a newspaper while I was living in Canada in the 1970s.
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