"Look, an animal!"

"Let's KILL it."

And this is how mistakes are made.

I'm not perfect. I killed a snake once when I was a kid. I massacred entire ant colonies. I did stupid shit like that.

The Flood, that was me.

I regret every moment of it and go way out of my way not to cause harm to our fine feathered, furred, and carapaced little friends. I've written a few times about the the Brown Recluse Spider I found in my home that I took to the woods and freed, hoping to create a few ripples of good animal karma for down the line. So far, not one Bengal Tiger has attacked me at the mall so I have to be doing something right.

But other people... they suck.

I cannot believe how many times I've been in a situation where I've been around people and upon seeing a bug, fish, or land animal, a person I'm with has the first reaction to showcase their human dominance and attempt to destroy it.

Sometimes its the hunters, who don't see a deer as a beautiful animal but something to shoot and theoretically turn into food and a trophy. Sometimes it's the people who are afraid of any insect whose first impulse is to swat, not thinking about how short these little creatures lives are without our interference. Sometimes it's people who are potential psychopaths, starting a killing path they'll follow to a clocktower some day.

I was at the home of my relatives in Florida recently and in their back patio spotted a snake. A ring snake, full adult size: 5 inches. It'd have to go to the gym three weeks straight just to attain harmlessness. My uncle's first instinct... KILL IT. The same goes for any lizard or bug who wanders in from the oppressive Florida heat. Left to their own devices the snake eat the lizards, the lizards eat the bugs, and whomever's left steers way clear of the humans. Sounds like harmony to me.

I'm sitting on someone's deck playing poker and one of the crew makes a big presentation about slamming their hands around a beetle flying in the vicinity. As if he were saving us from Pearl Harbor 2: The Teenage Years. It's a bug traveling from over there to across the way, one who was probably about to be tasted by a finch anyways... why interfere?

I'm at the bar and a little spider can be spotted in the sunlight hightailing down his web towards the ground where some little jackass gnat was probably causing some shit. A broom appears and is swung onto the tiny beast on its descent. Some people didn't get the memo: SPIDERS ARE HELPFUL.

I'm at my father in-law's house and there's a pellet gun leaned against the window, the weapon of choice to use upon the squirrels and rabbits who happen to head into his garden to enjoy the delicacies planted there. Suburban critters can't read but they do know that grocery stores were invented so modern folks don't need to be Early American settlers. Way I see it, if there's a squirrel in the garden let the dogs out. They'll keep 'em honest.

I'm on the golf course and a family of deer crosses the fairway. One of the group mentions that he wished he had his hunting rifle.

I never played golf with that cocksucker again. Fuck him.

Folks, they have exactly as much right living as you do. They are not one iota less a part of the world. Many times, their lifespans are a fraction of ours. Add that to the numerous things we are doing on purpose and inadvertently to kill them off and I think the hollow joy folks feel when they showcase their dominance ought to be snuffed out for the greater good.

Animals are great. Even the ugly ones. And remember, we are one scientific experiment away from having an onslaught of 20 foot-tall crickets shredding our homes and rupturing our eardrums with their sweet leg songs.

There will be a reckoning and even if there isn't, why not try being not an asshole.