[ SHOWGSD-L ] PREDATOR OR PREY
- From: Barbara Galasso <uwish@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: 'Showgsd-l' <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:55:05 -0400
I wrote this a few months ago and after reading some peoples thoughts
about the Michael Vicks dog fighting case, I thought I'd send it now.
Barbara
PREDATOR OR PREY
By
Barbara J. Galasso
When one thinks of all living things, the first thing that comes to most
people’s minds is the human being. He is given the most intelligent mind
of all God’s creatures. He has no rival for his position on top of the
pecking order. Then if you were to think of the animal kingdom, the top
of the food chain belongs to the majestic lion. The lion and the other
big cats are known to be the predators on earth. They hunt and seek out
their prey. They are definitely some of the mightiest of all animals.
Next if we look at the dog breeds, one would have to agree that the most
noble, the most proud and the ones who command the most respect are the
German Shepherds, the Dobermans, the Rotties, etc. These are the dogs
who have demonstrated intelligence, trainability, endurance and strength.
When one thinks about how we’ve come to expect how each of these living
creatures lives their lives, it can be very upsetting when the order of
things is interrupted or changed. Man through is own fault, greed and
corruption has altered his own history through his choices. Some of
those choices have proven to be deadly and detrimental to the rest of
the planet. Animals on the other hand normally do things out of instinct
and their instinct for survival is the driving force of their life.
Sometimes they can prove to be cunning in the pursuit of their prey. But
what about when the hunter becomes the hunted?
A few years back I saw a program about the lioness and how she hunts to
survive. The females are the ones who do the hunting and the male reaps
the rewards of her hard work. The alpha female communicates to the rest
of the pride when a hunt is to take place. Although well equipped with a
powerful body with claws that are able to rip their prey apart and jaws
made to tear the hide of another animal, all doesn’t always go as
planned. On this particular night that I watched this program, a lioness
came to a river bank that she was determined to cross. Little did she
know what lurked beneath the surface. With eyes black as coal, it laid
in wait ever so silent for the noblest of the big cats to enter the
water. Oblivious to the danger that awaited her, she started her fateful
swim ever deeper in to the dark ominous water. Then before she knew what
hit her, the large jaws of the crocodile twisted her startled body and
dragged her beneath the surface.
I must confess I had to turn the channel at this point. In my mind there
was something so wrong about the way this lioness life had ended. Here
was the King of the jungle, although she was a lioness, being the prey
of the crock. Although both formidable predators, this just wasn’t
supposed to happen to a lioness. We’re used to seeing her show no mercy
to her prey. Instead, she became the supper of one more powerful than
she when she decided to enter the forbidden river.
The reason I wrote about the story of the lioness is because it reminds
me of the stories that I see splashed across the headlines in the media
time and time again. The more horrific the story line, the more sales it
generates for the publication. The more graphic the pictures showing the
accursed act, the larger the audience will be. Our senses are assaulted
with these types of “attention grabbing” reporting and advertising. Take
for instance an ad that comes up time and time again on one of the major
search engines on the internet. It’s a picture with a big bear
constrained in chains and probably muzzled as a pit bull type of dog
bears his teeth as he attacks the helpless animal. Now we all know that
if this bear were free of his chains that the fierce “trained to fight”
dog would be killed from one bite of the mighty jaws of the great
animal. Every time this picture comes up on the search engine, I must
divert my eyes elsewhere. There is something so very wrong with that
picture to see a mighty animal reduced to a victim of his circumstances
manifested by the warped mind of man as to what makes entertaining
entertainment!
When you think of a predator and his prey, you know that many times the
predator doesn’t always get his prey on the first or second try. In fact
many times he has to make several attempts before he’s triumphant. In
that heart pounding instance the prey has escaped sudden death and found
shelter to protect himself from the predator….for this time anyway.
What about when there is no place to run and no place to hide and,
therefore, no means of escape? How about some of our unfortunate German
Shepherds who end up in shelters only to be gassed or shot? In my mind,
there is just something so very incomprehensible about this picture. The
German Shepherd if bred and raised correctly is among one of the most
beloved and respected dogs in the world. He is known for his
athleticism, agility, trainability, loyalty and his noble beauty. There
is no obstacle that he wouldn’t go through to protect his master. There
is nothing more pitiful to see then the light of hope go out of these
majestic dogs’ eyes by being imprisoned in a hell house waiting for
their executioner. There is something so demeaning about them cowering
in a corner and shaking with their skeleton more noticeable than the
coat that barely covers their back. This was never meant to be. The
chain of order has been altered. The German Shepherd was meant to
protect, to guide, to lead and to be a companion to man, but never to be
destroyed and discarded by him like a heap of trash. No animal should
ever end up in one of these horrific places to begin with, and certainly
not the German Shepherd Dog. The ultimate betrayal then is when the
noblest of the noble dies at the hands of the one he was born to defend
and protect. Woe to the one who meets the eyes of the innocent before he
succumbs to his cruel and intentional death.
The mighty and the powerful – we never think of them as the prey, but in
the hands of a predator, that’s what they have become. Somehow, we have
come to accept that the meek of the land are meant to be the prey and
although sad, it is the order of things. Its how nature meant it to be.
When it affects the “kings” of the species, something is so very
upsetting about that equation. Every life has meaning and value or it
should have. Every animal was born to be either predator or prey and
many times they play both roles. However, nature knows the way it should
be and the earth trembles when the role has been reversed. She doesn’t
like the pecking order to be changed and although it’s true that only
the strong survive when someone or something comes along and interrupts
things, it messes up the divine plan. When man sets about to reduce the
strongest of the strong to make them weak and defenseless and bend to
his will then he takes away the hope of survival which is the birth
right of every living creature on this earth.
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