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When my son was in grade school, I went with him and his class on an
overnight visit to the
Cincinnati Zoo.
Before we all went to sleep on a classroom floor, we endured a lecture from a khaki-clad, safari leader. He
acknowledged that we were surrounded by caged but wild animals not too far
away, which roused both feigned and sincere exclamations of fear from my son's
classmates. Then he asked, "What is the most dangerous animal on Earth?"
As you'd expect, he fielded all the typical answers—alligator,
lion, shark... "No," he informed them, "it's man!"
True but not fair. The instructor
exaggerated his
point in order to encourage good behavior that night and throughout the next
day. He used his lesson later in the to encourage conservation and respect for the Earth and all
its inhabitants. But in the process, you and I and our kin were dealt a bum rap.
Yes, we slaughter each other senselessly in war and just for the heck of it.
Yes, we're destroying the plant in the name of corporate greed. But what
other animal has devoted his or her life to finding a cure that eliminated a
disease?
Have you ever seen animals dispatch
themselves to aid the victims of a tsunami? What about the poor African
tribe who gathered up cattle to send to Americans in response to 911? Okay,
Lassie saved Timmy plenty of times on TV, but even if dogs do take great
risks to protect humans, remember, humans trained them.
Humans have been
known to throw themselves on grenades in the hope of saving the lives of
their comrades. If you were a beached whale, who would you
want to see, a hurry of humans or a school of fish?
I think kids can hold contradictions in
their creative little heads. So go ahead and tell them that humans are the most dangerous
creatures on Earth. Just balance it with a few of the qualities that argue
for our self-credited title of the crown of creation.
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