The Jaws of Bees: Saturday, August 31, 2019
Our prayers were heard.
God is looking out for us;
Giving us cover.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
While not quite a Jainist (is that right?), I have been a vegetarian now for just about 40 years originally starting from the moral premise; the least you should try to do ethically is to do no harm.
Yet I found myself once again amused by the growing casualty rate of bees my dog chomps on while we walk. On rare occasions she has killed much larger prey; a squirrel and a rabbit, and although I didn’t chastise her for those, I also didn’t find them amusing. In fact they were sad not only for the loss of life, but for the suffering the animals endured as she kill them, for their deaths were not instantaneous.
I suppose since I myself will occasionally knock off an insect, particularly if it’s in the process of trying to do me harm, I don’t empathize with the bees as much as I do my fellow mammals. Yet the bees are just minding their own business when our dog will, seemingly at random, choose to hunt one down. And, I confusedly confess, it’s this random leap of attack that triggers my amusement.
To see our 60 lb. lab/pit bull mix lunge at such a small creature as if it were a mortal enemy makes me chuckle. And that should probably make me wonder about my own state of mind. And it does… a little.
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