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Saturday, February 17, 2018

Natural Justice





Life in the jungles of Africa is hard. It is a constant struggle for man and beast to find food and drink every day, and things like comfort and dignity are luxuries. Man considers he is at the top of the food chain therefore animals are there for the purposes of serving him.

Animals are hunted and slaughtered for their skins and their meat; such has been the tradition since the coming of First Man. The first instinct of mankind is to obtain protein from animals, and so it has been that the majority of humankind exists from the sacrifice of the animals.

Where the biggest problem arises, other than for vegetarians, is that poachers have no respect for animals that do not serve them for food. They will stalk elephants and other prey to take such things as tusks and horns which he sells for a fortune to him, but to us is a mere pittance. Of course it’s easy for us to condemn him as we have jobs and careers and pensions, but he has only hunger.

In the process lives are lost by the Park Rangers whose job it is to protect the livestock, but the poacher comes armed and very dangerous and will kill any human he finds in his way to win the prize that will feed his family and perhaps give them some little comfort. The poacher is Public Enemy Number One in those societies so it is no surprise that they get no sympathy when things go wrong for them.

A recent headline tells the story of at least one poacher who met his match in a pride of hungry lions. They dished out revenge for all that he had done to harm animals, and for the sins of his compatriots. They killed him and sat down to dinner. All that was left of him was his head. They left that because it was even too disgusting for them.

Every now and again in the wilds of Africa Natural Justice is done, perhaps more so than we imagine.

Call it the Circle of Karma, for what goes around, comes around.

Copyright © 2018

Eugene Carmichael