319
On the beaches, occasionally, fur seal puppies are born and weaned and eventually – by the
sixth month or so – go out into the vast macrocystis [pyrifera] kelp beds to play like otters.
And in the deep carex grasses, baby rats sit nibbling with their dainty fingers, staring with
total innocence into the eyes of anyone who cares to share time with them [these last] two
fine caretakers … two cows. The sum total of all those recently bred Holsteins and
Guernseys; stoic, vulnerable, scentless at birth … among the vast majority of captive
bovines, enduring unimaginable pain thanks to us, only to be slaughtered, by the hundreds
of millions. Lives of impenetrable spirituality and keen, reduced to dead weight, lard, meat
patties and leather. All descended from three communities of primeval bovines, in East
Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Tibetan plateau, where the enormous Aurochsen moved
unrivaled, until humans wiped out the last of their kind in eastern Europe in 1627.
8
35.3 Reluctant Killing Fields
Into this paradise, we came to better understand the omnivorous behavior of the
introduced possums and rats (no mice or mustelids on Rakiura, not yet).
9
And to
gauge the non-human impacts on native wildlife. A raging series of daily battles
between innocence and those of the 4.8 million Homo sapiens—farmers, tourists,
hikers and grandmothers, babies and pastors, students, and every New Zealand consumer. Particularly those members of hunting outings and “predator control” industries across the country, with their lethal stock and trade jargon, battalions of lethal
bait stations with cyanide in the form of Feratox capsules, Sodium fluoroacetate
(1080)—a rash of technologies. The heinous methods of precision aerial drops from
helicopters and chemicals targeting “pests” “vermin” … the vilification of all those
mammals and non-native flora (e.g., the gorgeous gorse, one of the most beautiful
flowering plants in all of New Zealand, inviting the futile botanical archaeophyte
versus neophyte, ecological versus geographical space debates, colonization before
or after 1500 AD)
10
brought by humans into this island continent which, for 80
8 See Biotopia, by M. C. Tobias, Zorba Press, Ithaca New York, 2013, pp. 73–75.
9 See God’s Country: The New Zealand Factor, by M. C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, A Dancing
Star Foundation Book, Zorba Press, Ithaca New York, 2011
10 Such discussions over “biological invasions” has been definitively examined with respect to the
popular garden plant, Lilium lancifolium, one of the tiger lilies. The researchers point out that “The
admixture of genetically divergent lineages may also promote niche shifts,” with respect to evolution, natural selection, wild and naturalized, diploid and triploid offspring, all but blurring the
realistic burden of proof as to who and what belongs where or when on a finite planet. See
Herrando-Moraira, S., Nualart, N., Herrando-Moraira, A. et al. Climatic niche characteristics of
native and invasive Lilium lancifolium. Sci Rep 9, 14334 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598019-50762-4, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50762-4#citeas, Accessed August 2,
2020. In the case of tiger lilies, it is clear that their dissemination throughout most of the world has
favored any number of invertebrates, most notably the swallowtail butterflies. See “27 Of The Best
Lily Varieties And A Guide To The Different Types,” by Lorna Kring, Gardener’s Path, March 28,
2020,
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/flowers/best-lily-varieties/;
See
“Two-tailed
Swallowtail,(Papilio multicaudatus) (W.F. Kirby, 1884) ” Canadian Biodiversity Information
Facility, Government of Canada, https://www.cbif.gc.ca/eng/species-bank/butterflies-of-canada/
35.3 Reluctant Killing Fields
On the beaches, occasionally, fur seal puppies are born and weaned and eventually – by the
sixth month or so – go out into the vast macrocystis [pyrifera] kelp beds to play like otters.
And in the deep carex grasses, baby rats sit nibbling with their dainty fingers, staring with
total innocence into the eyes of anyone who cares to share time with them [these last] two
fine caretakers … two cows. The sum total of all those recently bred Holsteins and
Guernseys; stoic, vulnerable, scentless at birth … among the vast majority of captive
bovines, enduring unimaginable pain thanks to us, only to be slaughtered, by the hundreds
of millions. Lives of impenetrable spirituality and keen, reduced to dead weight, lard, meat
patties and leather. All descended from three communities of primeval bovines, in East
Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Tibetan plateau, where the enormous Aurochsen moved
unrivaled, until humans wiped out the last of their kind in eastern Europe in 1627.
8
35.3 Reluctant Killing Fields
Into this paradise, we came to better understand the omnivorous behavior of the
introduced possums and rats (no mice or mustelids on Rakiura, not yet).
9
And to
gauge the non-human impacts on native wildlife. A raging series of daily battles
between innocence and those of the 4.8 million Homo sapiens—farmers, tourists,
hikers and grandmothers, babies and pastors, students, and every New Zealand consumer. Particularly those members of hunting outings and “predator control” industries across the country, with their lethal stock and trade jargon, battalions of lethal
bait stations with cyanide in the form of Feratox capsules, Sodium fluoroacetate
(1080)—a rash of technologies. The heinous methods of precision aerial drops from
helicopters and chemicals targeting “pests” “vermin” … the vilification of all those
mammals and non-native flora (e.g., the gorgeous gorse, one of the most beautiful
flowering plants in all of New Zealand, inviting the futile botanical archaeophyte
versus neophyte, ecological versus geographical space debates, colonization before
or after 1500 AD)
10
brought by humans into this island continent which, for 80
8 See Biotopia, by M. C. Tobias, Zorba Press, Ithaca New York, 2013, pp. 73–75.
9 See God’s Country: The New Zealand Factor, by M. C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, A Dancing
Star Foundation Book, Zorba Press, Ithaca New York, 2011
10 Such discussions over “biological invasions” has been definitively examined with respect to the
popular garden plant, Lilium lancifolium, one of the tiger lilies. The researchers point out that “The
admixture of genetically divergent lineages may also promote niche shifts,” with respect to evolution, natural selection, wild and naturalized, diploid and triploid offspring, all but blurring the
realistic burden of proof as to who and what belongs where or when on a finite planet. See
Herrando-Moraira, S., Nualart, N., Herrando-Moraira, A. et al. Climatic niche characteristics of
native and invasive Lilium lancifolium. Sci Rep 9, 14334 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598019-50762-4, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50762-4#citeas, Accessed August 2,
2020. In the case of tiger lilies, it is clear that their dissemination throughout most of the world has
favored any number of invertebrates, most notably the swallowtail butterflies. See “27 Of The Best
Lily Varieties And A Guide To The Different Types,” by Lorna Kring, Gardener’s Path, March 28,
2020,
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/flowers/best-lily-varieties/;
See
“Two-tailed
Swallowtail,(Papilio multicaudatus) (W.F. Kirby, 1884) ” Canadian Biodiversity Information
Facility, Government of Canada, https://www.cbif.gc.ca/eng/species-bank/butterflies-of-canada/
35.3 Reluctant Killing Fields