How come the dogs of homeless people are so well-behaved? I saw one on 42nd street and it just sat there with the imperturbability of a statue, receptive to its owner but not to the maddening crowd that trudges endlessly by them. The stoics from ancient Greece would be proud, and the renaissance painters who include dogs in their paintings to signify loyalty to the crown would have them as the perfect models. Maybe the dogs sense their precarious lives, make no trouble, and conform with the mendicant ways of their masters.
When a member of the animal or plant kingdom goes extinct, there will be no second chances. Evolution will simply not repeat itself. There are reportedly eighty bird species that are unique to the Philippines and many of them have already made it to the endangered list. And we, to a great extent, have indiscrimate hunting to thank for it. In spite of two national laws protecting Philippine animals, the carnage continues unabated. The killings could occur as arbitrarily as guys getting together for macho time, or as a result of a well-planned hunting trip involving speed boats, bird callers, and camouflaged outfits. Either way, the outcome is the same. Philippine wildlife, our natural treasures, inches closer to a state of irreparable vacancy. Not too long ago, we learned about the Bacolod Air Rifle Club (BARC) whose unbridled killing of Philippine birds and ducks became the subject of an online petition calling for immediate government intervention. My post on that most disturbing c...
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