Did nature intend animals to be domesticated?
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Did nature intend animals to be domesticated?
Man has always tried to establish his mastery over nature in many ways. Every time man has come up with something that defies the laws of nature, it has always been with certain losses to him. Conserving nature has become a challenge today, we need advertisements and campaigns to save the earth, save wildlife, save animals! Who does the earth need saving from? Man! Man in his greed and need to rule the world has done great damage to mother earth and her wonders.
Nature has always been perfect. She has a design for everything that exists. Take for example- animals. The polar bear can survive the severe cold weather in the polar region. It never goes out to build itself fires, or ask for electric heaters to survive the cold. Nature designed that bear in such a fashion that it is self sufficient. His white fur creates a perfect camouflage for him to hide from enemies, his fur keeps him warm, he knows how to fish and can find himself food when hungry. He does not need to cook food to be able to digest it better. Take any other animal for example for that matter, and you will find the same. Each species has been crafted to best help its survival.
To come to the point- nature creates perfectly. Then man intervenes. He wants to control and own the world. He sets about marking and claiming his territory. Then he sets about making himself comfortable. He also wants to own animals for the benefits they bring him. Be it cows, goat, sheep, dogs, horses-whatever. When man started taming these animals- he made them incapable of surviving in the wilds, in their natural habitat. He also made them a little lazy. These tamed animals become dependent on man to feed them. They lose a bit of their natural hunting skills. They do not survive too long in the wilds.
Did nature ever tell man to pull a creature out of its natural habitat and put it in a zoo for his amusement or research? Did nature ever indicate that these poor animals would die if man did not keep them in his yard or home? Did nature ever say, "sell them, sell their fleece, sell their flesh or use them to make money?"
One hears of racehorses being shot if they don't win a race, apparently it is too expensive to keep feeding a horse that no longer wins. Or then they are sent off to the slaughter house. Animals that belong to circus also have more or less the same fate. Is this what being human is all about?
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Hi NatureStory,
and greetings from India! :)
Thanks for your feedback! Have a wonderful day.
Animals also are subject to karma, are they not?
Hi quicksand
I guess animals are also subject to karma.
Hi vibhavari A very interesting and knowledgeable hub, I will just say that I agree beyond question that humans have raped nature, speaking as a vegetarian who would harm no animal for personal greed (eating sense of the word) or sport. However I think it is too much to suggest that we cease our interaction with them for instance people say that captivity is bad, it provides knowledge which helps in conservation and in some cases has prevented extinction, symbiosis is used by many animals to better their chances of survival humans are used in this same way by many animals. Nature is beautiful and cruel, if you were to ask an animal if it wanted a warm environment with regular feeding and veterinary visits or a hard life rummaging for scraps and being hunted??? evolution does not have stipulations and humans have evolved we just need to be caring and intelligent with it.
Hi AngusNz,
Thank you for stopping by and for your feedback. I just put forth my own point of view. I am not saying we cease our interaction with them, but when I look at lovely coloured birds in cages or huge dogs kept constantly chained up in a little cooped up area when all the dog wants to do is run free and play, do things in open air, I just wonder if we are being fair to them. Owning a rare breed of bird or animal for a "sense of pride" and keeping them in a cage is not something that is easy to accept. Man has always used animals for his own gain, offering food and shelter in return, so it is a choice that one would say that lies between warm environment with regular feeding and veterinary visits as opposed to being free. After all, the hunter and the hunted are all part of nature's design.
I agree with everything you say its just so difficult to find the balance. Maybe we might one day when we grow up. Have you heard about the spix's macaw, a perfect example of mans abuse, worth a bomb because so few left and owned by people who wont breed them because it affects their worth?
Hi AngusNz,
yes I have heard of spix's macaw, it is so sad that humans have to use animals to make money and / or give them a sense of worth! Looks like we need to get our perspective right. Animals sure do not rely on man to give them a sense of worth or sense of prosperity :D
Have a nice day!
Nice Article :)
Part of me is thinking...
"How are human beings separate from the rest of the natural world?"
Regardless of different beliefs about the existence and creation of man-kind, be they religious or scientific, most people would agree that man kind did not create itself.
So, in a way, aren't we a product of nature?
In a similar fashion, each individual human being did not choose to be born, this is the result of their parent's actions. Most of the western world would agree that, in part, a baby's genetic make up (inherited from it's parents) will influence the behaviour of the person as they develop and eventually reach adulthood. This genetic make up is not something the person chose. So are we responsible for our consequential behaviour or do we just exhibit natural instincts?
I know i'm going off on a tangent here, but, I guess what i'm getting at is:
Do we human's have free will?
Or more relevantly, can human beings be blamed for what we're doing wrong?
Hi Stevo, you've raised some interesting points. I have already written a hub that might address Do we humans have free will?
Read my thoughts at
http://hubpages.com/hub/Do-we-really-have-a-choice
Thank u
Hv a great day!
Hello Vibhavari, I love your intuition and sensitivity here. It is my contention that claiming to love animals is as redundant as claiming to love your elbow. You would never wish your elbow to be trained to behave like your stomach, for example and I often wonder why dog lovers throw sticks for dogs to fetch.
Hi Alison Sellers,
Thank you so much for your feedback. I also know of many dog lovers who when they moved homes or moved to a different country gave up their pets to other people because they could not take them along- I just wonder would one do it just as easily to a member of their family? Does the animal have any say in the matter in such cases?
NatureStory 19 months ago
Great article you wrote here, thanks for sharing it.
Greatings from Norway!