Dear Life,
Today the Commission won. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. And when I say win, I mean they won over the judge in Tallahassee at the judicial circuit court hearing on the case of the Florida Bear Hunt. What they did not win is the love for bears that so many people in Florida and across the globe share in common.
Wildlife and animals in general continually fall victim to human powers. Why is that? As stated by the judge, “The population must be managed. The management of that population under the ways of this world have fallen to us.” I would like to know when managing wildlife started. Did it start when humans became too populated? Maybe we need to look to other means of managing the wildlife. Or let’s examine the ways in which humans keep encroaching the territory for which these animals thrive and live.
I feel sympathy for the human powers involved in the decision to have a Bear Hunt. Being a Judge or the Commission and having to play GOD at the same time must be incredibly challenging. The amount of responsibility to make life and death decisions based on ego, pride and control is utterly overwhelming. To have to carry the weight of death and destruction based on barbaric actions is consciously suffocating.
Issuing 2,000 plus licenses for a total statewide “take” of 320 bears with no real plan in place to manage that kill “take” is sickening. Hunting is a historical means of obtaining food for man. When done as a sport it’s uncivilized, primitive, and crude = BARBARIC. Allowing dogs to be on a leash during the hunt and allowing hunters to kill a bear within 100 yards of a bait station is unethical and leaving the bears at a disadvantage. There is no way the commission can enforce 2,000 plus licensees from not breaking those rules and regulations.
The world of animal rights and advocacy can be controversial at times. There are people that believe in saving everything that breathes and then there are those that claim they like animals, but are okay to harm, hunt, and eat them. There are also those that don’t believe animals have rights at all (these are the extreme). What the world needs is for everyone to put aside their egos and just for a moment look at everything you do, say and act from a different perspective.
There are two driving forces in life; FEAR and LOVE. Everything stems from one of those two forces. Anger, darkness, and resentment all come from fear. Light, hope, kindness, and peace come from love. “You’re in business to spread love. Your screenplay should spread love. Your hair salon should spread love. Your agency should spread love. Your life should spread love.” –Marianne Williamson. If people would infuse love into everything they do, the decisions we make, and the actions we take; then the controversy of whether to have a bear hunt or not wouldn’t exist. Communicating ways to manage the bears and other wildlife through humane and compassionate means is the answer for a world riddled with FEAR.
I ask the Commission, Judges, and all involved with the Florida Bear Hunt; Do you choose FEAR or LOVE?
In Compassion,
Jessie
