Animal outrage mobs need to stop
Why do we, as a society, put the lives of animals and the needs of the environment ahead of human safety and progress? In recent years, we’ve seen attacks on innovations including central air conditioning — US Secretary of State John Kerry sees the device as something as dangerous as terrorist group ISIS — and large public outcries when an animal is killed to save the lives of human beings.
Mother of three Julie Strauja, from California, is receiving death threats and had her address posted on social media. Why? Because the mother of three got a permit to shoot and kill a bear that had repeatedly broke into her home, injuring the family dog and winding up in her kitchen.
Strauja says she tried several non-lethal methods to scare the bear off her property before the obtaining a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife and having a friend shoot the bear.
From the San Bernardino Sun (emphasis added):
“I haven’t regretted my decision at all, but the way the people in this town initially responded was initially disheartening,” Julie Faith Strauja said. “I’ve had death threats and my address posted all over social media.”
Strauja moved to Forest Falls July 1.
A Facebook post Wednesday evening that included Strauja’s address read, “Contact me if you want to legally make their life a living hell.” The post has since been taken down but Strauja kept a screenshot of it.
Strauja, who calls herself an animal lover, said she’s fostered 15 dogs over the past year. But concerns for her family’s safety prompted her to seek a permit to shoot the bear, if it came to that.
“It had already come into my house Friday night and then again broke into my kitchen early Saturday morning and attacked my dog,” she said. “I have my three babies in the house.”
The reaction of the community mirrors the outrage parents in Ohio faced when their young son fell into a gorilla enclosure. To rescue the boy, zoo authorities shot and killed Harambe, a western lowland gorilla. People were outraged that the gorilla was killed. The criminal record of the boy’s father was reported on (despite it having nothing to do with the incident), people wanted the children removed from the home for neglect, and even a Change.org petition seeking “justice” for the animal. The mother was not charged and prosecutors said she did nothing wrong.
Residents of Forest Falls, where Strauja lives, have similar reactions. Also from the Sun:
“I have lived here for seven years and never had a problem with a bear going in (my) house,” said Pennie Justin, a Forest Falls resident who calls bears majestic creatures and has taken several photographs of the animals roaming the small town.
Justin said she feels, like many in the community, that Strauja should have used less lethal means to get rid of the bear.
“Go to a neighbor. Get in a car. They don’t hurt you as long as you leave them alone,” Justin said. “My son walks home at 2 o’clock in morning. No problem.”
It’s wonderful Justin has never had a problem with a bear. But the argument that Strauja should have left her home or gotten in her car to avoid the bear is laughable. Strauja didn’t encounter this bear in the wild, or even in her yard. This bear broke into her house. Where she has three children. Saying she’s never had a bear in her house doesn’t justify Strauja shooting the animal is like Justin saying the fact she’s never been robbed doesn’t justify Strajua locking her doors at night.
And her assertion “they don’t hurt you as long as you leave them alone”? Well, I certainly wonder what sort of credentials Justin has to make that call. Is she an expert in bear behavior? Is it normal for a bear to repeatedly try to enter a home? I would like Justin to tell us. And I wonder why Justin didn’t condemn the doxxing of her neighbor, and the threats made against Strauja’s life and safety.
The point is this: the lives of animals are not equal to or above that of human beings. These are often wild creatures who cannot be reasoned with or tamed, despite what movies and fictional stories tell us.
Social media certainly enables people to post comments and threats more easily than in the past. However, social media is not to blame here. Justin, for example, lives in the same community and has condemned her neighbor, Strauja, for taking the right and responsible course of action.
Yes, the senseless and wanton abuse or neglect of an innocent animal is abhorrent and should be charged as the crime it is (for example, people who kill animals in pursuit of a selfie with the creature). That’s not the case here. In both Strauja’s case, and in Harambe’s, an animal was posing a threat to human life and, specifically, the lives of children. It was absolutely the right call to end the lives of these animals to save the lives of children. In both cases, learned authorities gave permission to end the lives of these wild animals.
