The Puppy Problem

Riding along today through the winding mountain roads of Colombia past the dozens of road side fruit stands... Each of them crowded with a dozen sorts of ripe fruit of which I only recognise half... Bananas, Mangos, Pineapples, Grapes, Papaya, Passion-fruit... and the rest I just dont know the names of.
Yes, its very pleasant country here with all the little ridge-top villages and the hillsides covered in coffee plantations with lots of banana palms in amongst the coffee bushes (they use them as shade for the coffee unlike in Guatemala where they mostly use Avocado trees) Its the "Cafetera" region and its very popular with the tourists :)

Anyway, as I was slowly winding my way through the hills, and as I came around one corner, and before I went into the next one, I had a couple of seconds of view of what was happening in that little spot...

And my attention was drawn toward a pretty normal local guy on a grassy hillock just to the side of the road and maybe 10-15m from what I assume was his home along the highway. And he was bending down and doing something with a sack... You know, the kind that farmers always have about the place. And as I rode closer I could see that there was a little puppy at his feet of maybe a month or two old (with the pot belly and the little short legs).
And then the man was reaching and gathering up the puppy with one hand, which was all wiggly and waggy and happy but didnt really want to be picked up...just wanted to be with the man...
And then the man was trying to put the puppy in the sack... but the puppy didnt want to go, and wanted his head out and was using his little paws to try to get away over the edge of the sack... But the man was big and the puppy was small, and my last view in the rear view mirror as I went into the next bend was that the puppy had gone into the sack...
...
... And I rode on...
...

I guess there are a thousand reasons why the man could have been putting the puppy in the sack, and I have no clue which reason it actually was. But it seems to me that by far the most likely reason is that the puppy was unwanted and that it was a "one way trip" for the little dog... I expect the sack was to be discarded or disposed of in some convenient fashion - puppy and all !

Its very very sad but its also very very normal all the world over... There are way more puppies than there are guardians for them. And I thought to myself... Yes, its just one more aspect of human "waste" !
And of course its totally avoidable and in fact, is successfully avoided by many caring pet guardians the world over too. Its not like a dog getting pregnant is an unpredictable or unavoidable event you know... There is a week or so "warning" period where its quite visible to anyone that the female dog is coming into season. And the guardian has the choice of being proactive and getting the dog "neutered" (which of course costs money that many people in the world cant afford) or they can restrict the female dogs access to other dogs for about the next two weeks... Shouldnt really be that hard...
But, for the most part, we lazy humans cant be bothered with being observant and putting some effort in... So the female dog usually gets pregnant... and in due course there are a bunch of little puppies around.
And now because of earlier negligence the puppies have to be "dealt with"... And some few get found homes for, some others are allowed to live but are dropped somewhere along a roadside after they are big enough to start being a nuisance and are no longer cute and entertaining for the people... But many more are "dealt with" in a more permanent fashion... Sometimes more humanely and other times more cruelly...And thats where the "sack" comes in!


But, I reflected, good old "mother nature" would deal with "excess puppies" in her own ways and they are almost universally very cruel as far as our human sensibilities are concerned.
Its true... If wild animals produce excessive young then they either starve or are eaten by other predators... without exception!... No waste there :)

So then, Why is it that when a human treats puppies in this way it is often viewed as immoral behaviour ?

Well, my answer to that is limited but it requires a bit of a pre-amble:

Firstly Id like to point out the blatantly obvious point that most people choose not to see, that "mother nature" is not the wonderful loving nurturing "mother" figure of popular conception... "She" is in fact not a "moral concept" at all... She is an absolutely iron handed and blind balancer of scales... To my mind a better image than the conceptual "Nymph prancing through the forest making flowers bloom and doe dear become pregnant and grain crops bountiful" is instead, the image we have of "Justice"... The blindfolded woman standing impassively with a scale in one hand and a sword in the other... For that is what nature does.... (but most people prefer to think of that "nasty" stuff as being some other "entity")

As far as I can tell, nature cares not a jot for her off-spring! They/We are given life but then all are left to fend for them selves. Mother nature hesitates not a moment in erasing life and lives absolutely and in vast numbers if that is what is called for in the name of "balancing those scales".

Its not an instant or mirror balance that is called for though; There is time and versatility in the way the balancing can be made...
But when "the account falls due", Made it will be!; And Nature cares not at the cost of life.
And we humans are only just starting to learn the mirriad complex ways in which those "natural balances" can be made. And neither is it clear to our puny human conceptions of things, at what point "mother nature" will decide that "the account has fallen due" on many aspects of "natures balance".
And so, she is "The Queen of Swords" our dear old "mother nature"; And has no conception of "moral" as we humans conceive it... Yes, nature is cruel!... but always "fair" as measured by her scales.

Which brings us back to the human problem of what is "moral" when it comes to dealing with animals (and people too of course), and in this case, that means dealing with unwanted puppies...

Well, my thoughts are that while nature is cruel and emotionless and has no moral virtues, We humans are not...
In fact, as far as I can so far tell, we humans are the ONLY creatures that even have the capacity for "moral" actions... I think animals like dogs and cats etc. clearly have emotions but I think they fall short of morals no matter how much we like to anthropomorphise their behaviours in our own minds.

And for me, thats I guess, the point...
We have the "capacity" and so we should use it as best we can!
Its not much of an argument, but thats what it comes down to for me...

... And its a struggle indeed! As our societies slowly change over time to adapt to our current concepts of "moral"... The old standards often falling by the wayside and viewed in retrospect as primitive, uncivilised, and bigoted etc.... And one society changing in different ways to another and the two groups then finding themselves at "moral odds" ... And we argue about it and often we fight and kill over it too; And our societies have committed untold atrocities against each other that are immoral from virtually all views... All in the name of upholding "Gods Law"...ahh, so sad...

And so we humans grow... individually and as societies. We slowly change and learn through the centuries of repetition. Sometimes we take a "wrong turn" and later we have to change again. And sometimes what may well have been a good path is on the losing side of one of those wars and is "lost" only to be slowly rediscovered and re-adopted centuries later...
But, I guess I like to think that on the whole, we humans are making progress... :))


But the trick of course is that while we may be making progress and getting wiser and more powerful... We are still absolutely "accountable" as far as "mother nature" and her sword and scales are concerned!... There are no exceptions... We are not "above the law".
And so it seems to me that the human struggle is to keep BOTH balances level... The Moral one as well as Natures one...
... But, to be clear, thats only to do with our human affairs... I do not think it is our place to usurp natures rule with our own ... (not that we could) Nature will always hold the higher power and will use that "sword" when we fail to meet her requirements!


... And as pertaining to puppies?...
Well, I think its a good example of how we can be "more than just animals", and "more than just greedy, selfish people"...
We have the capacity to see whats going to happen and we can balance those scales in a different way than "mother nature" would... And we can do it thoughtfully and gently... and by doing so, I think we realise more of our "potential"...

But thats just the way I see it at present, and I too have a VERY long way to go in achieving my potential... And though I could have intervened in some way with the man and the puppy, I didnt, and I rode on...

... It seems that my "action" has been to "think about it" a bit, and "write about it a bit", and otherwise "let things be" as I ride on and try to "grow my understanding of things" so that I get closer ever so slowly to that latent potential I think we all have.

... and thats enough for me ... for now... :))