Police and Military and the Condoned Killing of Animals

Florida Fish & Wildlife photo

How often do we have to hear about those in law enforcement and the military killing or abusing animals before we realize we have a problem here?

Soldiers throw puppies over cliffs. Police automatically shoot dogs upon entering suspects' homes. FBI agents kill neighbors' companions and get a free pass. Police officers shoot a 10-pound baby mountain lion and try to claim the little one was a threat. Navy officers shoot nearly two dozen protected birds, just for fun. Obviously, there are plenty of compassionate military and law enforcement officers who don't do these things, who are infuriated by such actions, but there are still too many instances like these. Too many do it. And they do it all with callousness and without reason.

In this latest case, it's obvious to anyone with common sense that the four Naval officers arrested along with three of their buddies for shooting the 21 protected birds from the sky in Florida and leaving their bodies to rot are the ones who committed the act, but the state has decided that there's not enough evidence to charge the seven, so they're walking away. The one person who admitted to the shootings did so before being read Miranda rights; the trespassing signs weren't clear enough, it's being said; and the guns used--the ones Florida Fish and Wildlife officers found the suspects with when they returned to their vehicle on a "boat loaded with rifles, shotguns and pistols" after the shootings (the officers heard the shots and saw the birds fall from the sky so went to investigate)--didn't have fingerprints. Yeah. The guns they had taken from their vehicles and then returned with, right in the area of the shootings, were mysteriously void of fingerprints. And we're supposed to believe they didn't know they were doing something wrong?

The shooters were lying in wait for the ibises, herons, cormorants, and egrets at their known nesting grounds. One of the Fish and Wildlife officers explained, "Basically they were sitting in the birds’ bedroom waiting for . . . the birds to return to go to bed for the night."

And of course, the U.S. Department of Defense itself engages in regular animal abuse via its horribly cruel experiments and training programs,so the U.S. Army and Navy probably aren't entities we should expect to encourage compassion toward animals, are they?

We have a problem here. And it's not just that military and law enforcement officers can kill animals for fun and get away with it--it's that we as a society condone most killing of animals for pleasure. We object only when the animal is a puppy, bird, or other animal we've arbitrarily decided is important. When the animal is a deer or a wild turkey or a duck or a raccoon, we tell people to go for it--there's nothing wrong with unnecessarily killing a fellow feeling, thinking being. It's good clean fun!

We create distinctions between which animals it is OK to torture and kill and which animals should be protected and revered--and they're ridiculous distinctions. The duck shot from the sky wanted to live as much as a snowy egret, and she feels her agony and death as much as a snowy egret would. Similarly, the cow wants to live and feels her grief, sorrow, pain, and death as much as would a manatee whose unnecessary abuse and killing would bring outrage. But we disregard the duck and the wild turkey and the cow and call those who lament their deaths silly, while we mourn, protect, and demand justice for the animals we've decided are majestic or parts of our families.

The seven individuals who shot the 21 birds from the sky in Florida just for kicks are not the only ones responsible for the birds' deaths. Everyone who reinforces rather than challenges this society's acceptance of the unnecessary killing of animals, who accepts rather than rejects the nonsensical distinctions we make between sets of animals, is at fault too.