Seldom have I read a more tragic story than the extinction of the passenger pigeon, flocks that stretched as far as the eye could see, one tier above another, taking an entire day to pass overhead.
In just 200 years, Europeans arrived in America and decimated 5 billion birds for cheap meat, feathers, target practice and fun. Sometimes they would bring down several birds at a time, merely because they could. The passenger pigeon died out in the wild in Ohio about 1900. The last survivor died (of loneliness I'm sure) in captivity in 1914.Reminiscent of the violent mentality behind this shortsighted and consumptive paradigm free of remorse, 85% of Bend residents voted in a Source poll in favor of killing resident geese - because they poop! Are you kidding?! Walk around it! Stay at home! Quit whining!
Intrinsic value: The right of other life forms to exist and live in peace, for their own sakes, regardless of their instrumental value to humans.
