When I read the very intriguing book ‘The Life of Pi’, I was shocked when the author suggested that animals in zoos were not to be pitied. He pointed out that an animal’s life is one of constant stress, always in danger of either starvation or becoming another animal’s dinner. The zoo offered a refuge and relief from never ending anxiety, though at a price of some level of boredom perhaps.
We celebrate nature and revel in its wildness. The natural world is beautiful and fascinating, but it is also brutal. I have to look away when a nature film captures the hunting and ultimate killing of a young gazelle by a lion or the gruesome envenomation and subsequent swallowing of a small rodent by a rattlesnake. These are very natural events, but they are difficult to watch.
Nature is not necessarily cruel, but it is violent and merciless. Normal hunting for food is vicious, but there is an understandable survival instinct behind it. Other animal behaviors that seem to border on cruelty, such as cats toying with their victims, deadly territorial battles between members of the same species, adults murdering the young of other families (and sometimes even their own), and other seemingly malevolent acts, can all be characterized as behaviors dictated by the idiosyncrasies of evolution. However, I cannot help but suspect that there are random, more savage variations in the animal kingdom not unlike human psychopaths and sadists.
Almost all animals are potential prey for some other animal, which must make one’s daily rounds anything but tranquil. The so-called apex predators, who sit at the top, have only humans to fear, but that does not make their life a bed of roses. Starvation is always looming, and there are also the often-violent territorial disputes to give one pause.
Fortunately, animals seem to be indifferent to philosophical reflection, so their life of constant anxiety doesn’t appear to lead to severe depression. And one does see occasional bouts of playfulness and fun in some species, so perhaps there is some joy in being an animal other than the pleasure of fulfilling basic needs.
Many animals are herbivores or omnivores who obtain all or some portion of their nutrition from plants. Herbivores are only cruel to plants and that seems less objectionable to our human sensibilities. Plants seem unlikely to be stricken by fear or pain, though there is some evidence that complex plant groups, such as old growth forests, have more sensations than we realize.
Having had to claw our way up the food chain over the eons, it is only ‘natural’ that we human beings have a bit of the wild animal remaining in us. We kill and maim, we fight over territory (and many other things, for that matter) and we do whatever is necessary to survive. Are we destined to murder one another for all eternity?
We dare to envision a world where human beings live in harmony, where war and crime have vanished from the earth. We are closer to that vision today than any time in history and have, to a great extent, ceased celebrating violence and conquest as an acceptable pastime. We do not appear to be condemned to endless savagery. We can rise above it.
But the natural world will never cease to be violent. Brutality will continue to rule the savannah, the jungle and the forest, and even the nooks and crannies of our houses and gardens. We cannot insist on a truce in the animal world, however appealing that thought might be. We have no choice but to accept animals eating other animals as a fact of life. We must rationalize the pain and anguish it inflicts as a necessary mechanism of nature and of life. However, the human achievement of peace and harmony is something that could, in theory, come to pass, and it is a noble goal for humankind. If it should ever occur, it will indeed be a ‘supernatural’ feat. And perhaps we could even indulge in some claims of exceptionalism!
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