A tragic irony

I try to keep this blog light. But it's called Soul Impressions, and this topic has made a deep and profound impression on my soul this week.

Have you seen CNN's video about the culling of African elephants? If not, you must. Click here to watch it.

What makes this tragedy so ironic? Humor me for a moment. Here's the African government's argument: There are too many elephants in southern Africa, and their overpopulation is disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystem; what's more, these elephants are destroying trees, which reinforces the need to reduce the population by slaughtering them. But they are almost as intelligent as humans, and have even better memories than we do, so you have to shoot and kill the entire family when you hunt because an orphaned baby elephant will grieve the loss of its family and remember the hunt - and its consequences - for the rest of its 60+ remaining years of life.

That facet of the issue, they concede, is inhumane.

IRONY: What OTHER large mammal is overpopulated, is destroying its environment, and - if hunted - would need to be killed in a group rather than individually because it would remember the hunt for the rest of its life and never recover? Hmmm ... we do more than destroy trees; we destroy our planet. And yet no one calls for us to be rounded up and executed family by family. So why are we doing this to elephants? What gives us the right?

Something to think about.