Empathy Identity

          One time I was on my way to Mayagüez with some of my friends, the road was dark and the music was very loud when suddenly we felt a very big bump under the car so we panicked and stopped. When we got out of the car we noticed that what happen is that my friend had killed a stray dog. My friends reactions where very diverse. The most stunning reaction came from the owner of the car who was very mad because the car had a little bump and it was covered in blood. The most humane reaction was from a girl who loves dogs and started to cry.  At the moment I felt a little sorrow but I have to admit that a road kill didn’t seem like such a big deal and It was more of a hassle than anything.  

            Most people in Puerto Rico have a big attitude of indifference towards road kills because it is something we are accustomed to. My reaction was based on that since I was a little boy seeing a dead animal was a daily thing, every time someone made a road kill they where more preoccupied with their car being dirty than the life of the animal. I have to say that personally I feel bad when I see a dead animal like a cat or dog, but maybe not as bad as I should. There's also another side to road kills that may seem positive because one of the most killed animal squashed by cars in Puerto Rico are Iguanas. Iguanas have been devouring vegetation and disrupting the island ecosystem so this death may be considered as pest control. (Newcomb, 2012) Nerveless it its necessary that people begin to have empathy and respect for the lives of animals because as humans we should respect life no matter how big or little it may be.

            There are a lot of thing that can be done in order to minimize road kills and create consciousness in Puerto Rico, first of all and upmost important its to create awareness for the respect of all type of life and a better method of certification in order to have a pet. People must be willing to keep their pets and if not they should take the proper process and find them another home not leave then in the streets to die. The best way to sensibilize people is to begin in the system of education, at all schools the importance of every life should be emphasized because the feeling of indifference in people is cultivated at an early age in this society. And last driver should be required to be more careful when driving so a lot of these accidents are avoided.

            In todays Puerto Rican society empathy for other living things is being lost little by little. It is most important that we remember than animals are our only companions in this planet and that we cannot loose sight of life value. Road kills are situations that cannot become routine and it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure this is changed. Nature was there before all machinery and it will be there after so we need to respect it because we really on it. Road kills are the perfect example of technology corrupting nature a process that needs to stop before its too late and ther no coming back.

References:

Newcomb, T. (2012, 008 22). Iguana: In puerto rico, it’s what’s for dinner. Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/22/iguana-in-puerto-rico-its-whats-for-dinner/

Evolutive equality

Most humans consider themselves superiors to animals, our only companions in this planet; we constantly destroy their habitats, exploit them for food, clothe and use them as pets. According to the Merriam-webster dictionary superior means of higher rank, quality or importance. My relationship with animals is one of cooperation because scientifically speaking we cannot consider ourselves superior to them in most aspects. It is a common belief in this society that a person’s life is worth more than that of any animal but we fail to give a logical explanation to why that is.

In my experience I always try to help animals by taking care of the environment we share with them, not having any pets and certainly not using them for clothe. A critical error made by humans that’s has been devastating to the environment has been thinking that this planet is of our position when really it is the opposite, something animals know. As humans we destroy not only our environment, the one that nurtures us, but also every living organism environment. We don’t have greater importance than animals because if you look at importance in a view of the ecosystem we live in, people have very little positive effects on it while many other animals like bees for example have a vital role. Without out bees a lot of plant wouldn’t get pollinized disrupting multiple food chains all over the world, now that’s true value. (Michener, 2000.)

A usual statement for human superiority is that we are the most evolved species (higher quality) but in reality there is no such thing because all animals currently living have been evolving for the same amount of time. Evolution is mainly driven by natural selection, the process in which beneficial traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations. So a species can be judge as being more evolved if they posses characteristics that make them better adapted to their environment so they are more likely to survive until reproductive age. Organisms better suited to survive have a grater chance to reproduce and pass their favorable traits (Brooker, Widmaier , Graham & Stiling, 2011). With this in mind humans do seem like a very evolved species because we have had an exponential population growth and occupy a large amount of the planet but throw a person in the middle of the sea or place them underground any fish or worm would seem as the most evolved organism. As humans we have been greatly adaptable but only for our own ecological niche.

Human should learn from animals to respect and take care of our environment. We should cooperate with them because we relay on them for numerous aspects of our lives. Also animals are able to do amazing thing while relaying purely on instinct so we shouldn’t feel superior because even with our reasoning we do a lot more irrational things like destroying the place we live in. It is necessary that people realize that we are not superior before it is to late and everything animals and we need is destroyed. It is of critical importance that we learn to live in harmony with our equally valuable companions for both our sakes.

1. Brooker, R., Widmaier , E., Graham, L., & Stiling, P. (2011). Biology. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

2. Michener, C. D. (2000). The bees of the world. Johns Hopkins University Press.

3. Superior. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved Feb 9, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superior