Save the wolves, save ourselves

“Listen to the howl of our spiritual brother, the wolf; for how it goes with him, so it goes for the natural world.” Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders

Your family plays, forms loving bonds and social hierarchies, raises children and works to sustain itself, just like every other family.

But on a regular basis, your family members are slaughtered, just for being alive in the world today.

I could be talking about any minority group, anywhere in the world. But today I’m talking about wolves.

Mysterious, mystical, misunderstood wolves.

I wrote about wolves in May 2013 in a post called, “The Nature of Wolves and the Nature of Man.” You can read that post HERE.

At the time, I was focused on the dangers our spiritual brothers and sisters face here in the United States.   But recently I was contacted by a reader in Sweden who told me about the danger of wolf hunts in Sweden and asked me to share that news. There is a link at the bottom of this post for signing a petition to call for their protection.

Below is a 4-minute video on how the presence of wolves has a cascading effect on ecosystems by changing the behavior of deer, regenerating forests and stabilizing rivers. It’s almost miraculous. Wolves restore ecosystems by their very existence.

Yet we want to hunt them for trophies? There’s no logical reason for it. It’s like the old example of the foolish man cutting off the branch on which he’s sitting.

“We are living on the planet as if we have another one to go to.” Terry Swearingen

Are we de-sensitizing ourselves into extinction?

“The world lives within us, we live within the world. By damaging the living planet we have diminished our existence.”

“We have been able to do this partly as a result of our ability to compartmentalize. This is another remarkable capacity we have developed, which perhaps reflects the demands of survival in the ever more complex human world we have created. By carving up the world in our minds we have learnt to shut ourselves out of it.

“We eat meat without even remembering that it has come from an animal, let alone picturing the conditions of its rearing and slaughter. We make no connection in our compartmentalized minds between the beef on our plates and the destruction of rainforests to grow the soya that fed the cattle; between the miles we drive and the oil wells drilled in rare and precious places, and the spills that then pollute them.” George Monbiot, 12/9/2014: “Civilization is Boring”

We become unconnected by our inaction. We go unconscious, and shut ourselves off, rather than have to live with the pain our modern lifestyle and inaction causes countless forms of life.

The old film and television show MASH is a prime example of how people sometimes deal with carnage and death surrounding them: make jokes. The other option in such circumstances is to go insane.

But there are other options: to take action.

Let’s stop, think, get in touch with our hearts, and take even one small step to stand up for our relatives who have no voice.

Below is a series of links to wolf protection petitions. Please take a few moments to let your voice be heard. The more people who speak up, the more likely we are to change the laws that allow this needless slaughter.

For in the end, we are only hurting ourselves.

Petitions to protect wolves

It literally took me just 6 minutes, 20 seconds to sign all these on-line petitions. Probably the most productive 6 minutes of my day.

Sierra Club Petition for Protection of Wolves

MoveOn.org Petition to Protect Wolves

Change.org Petition to Protect Wolves

https://www.change.org/p/wolves-need-federal-protection

Sweden: Stand up for Swedish wolves here. We are all one world community: https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-swedish-wolves-please-sign-and-share-this-petition

Currently five states in the U.S. allow wolf hunting: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho . You can speak up by signing petitions below:

Idaho: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-idaho-wolves/

Michigan: In spite of Michigan voters rejecting wolf hunt referenda, state law hasn’t been changed and wolf hunting is still allowed. Apparently lobbyist money counts more than citizen votes.

Minnesota: sign a letter to suspend the hunt, which has already exceeded the 2014 quota. http://www.howlingforwolves.org/letter

Montana: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-unjustified-killing-and-hunting-of-montana-s-wolves-use-science

Wisconsin: http://animalpetitions.org/30896/save-wolves-from-imminent-extinction-2/

Rachel Carson: “But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”