A few days ago, I saw an article on Facebook published by "the Dodo" talking about how the U.S. Government was planning to make it legal for hunters to venture into the dens of hibernating bears and of wolves and kill them as well as their cubs and pups; make it legal for them to use steel-jawed leg traps; make it legal for them to bait them with food and shoot them at point blank range; make it legal to shoot them from the air. "The Resolution, S.J. Resolution 18 was introduced by U.S. Representative Don Young, who is a former trapper." It is designed to overturn U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations that protect the wildlife. The thought of all of this made me sick to my stomach so I read other articles to see what I could do. Initially I misread "the Dodo's" article thinking there was still time to act before the Senate voted for it because another article on the subject told me my only hope was to write to my Senator, which I did. Naturally I shared the article and encouraged others to write to their Senators as well. But when I looked back at the article, I realized my mistake and that the voting had already been done, and the House and the Senate had already voted in favor of this piece of legislation to allow the cruel slaughter of countless animals across wildlife refuges across Alaska. I was absolutely devastated that I was too late and that this resolution passed in the House and the Senate. I am devastated every day I hear about cruelty towards animals and the lack of protection for them because things like this have already been happening for a long time. Cruelty passes in our Government and I would like to ask why.

Why?

Why is it a question as to whether or not we need to protect animals? Why is it a question as to whether or not these forms of hunting should be allowed? Why is hunting a bear or a wolf allowed at all?

I am not in favor of hunting unless it is absolutely necessary to survival because I see it as cruel, and I find it pretty messed up that a person would want to, or would enjoy killing any living thing at all. I have spoken to people who hunt before, and many of them have said that they eat what they hunt and they use every part of the animal. Since our meat and fishing industries are terrible when it comes to how the animals and their habitats are treated, I can see hunting an animal that actually has free range out in the woods, and is given a fair shot at escaping to be more humane than keeping them cooped up in a slaughterhouse where they will be mistreated before being killed. However I still have problems with hunting, and I can only see that humane side if the hunting is done in the cleanest, quickest way possible so that the animal doesn't suffer, and only when none of the animal is going to be wasted. Some people claim they hunt deer in order to keep the population down. That's fair I suppose but maybe if the deer's natural predators like coyotes, wolves, and bears weren't being killed so often, maybe deer population control wouldn't be a problem. Wolves are endangered because they are being shot and killed so often. I don't believe that all hunters are bad people, not at all. And I get it; it's the circle of life, humans have the right to kill animals to eat them. But to do it the way we do, and as much as we do? Humans are supposed to be better; advanced, superior. What does it say about us that we go out and kill for "sport" and that we allow it to be done in some of the cruelest ways possible? Is no one else disturbed by people who kill an animal and then take photo of themselves standing over the creature and smiling? What does it say about us that some of us enjoy killing? What does it say about us that this gets glossed over?

I know there will be people that say that the lives of animals don't matter as much as the lives of humans. But why? Because they don't always live as long? Because we can't understand their language? We know that they feel; there have been studies done on it, and there are countless instances in which we see animals coming to the rescue of others, or grieving over their dead. Just look at your dog's face; he/she doesn't care who you are or what you've done, they love you unconditionally. Or maybe it's because they're not viewed as intelligent. After all, they don't have iPhones, or Google, or TV. They also don't have factories that are constantly releasing greenhouse gases, or zillions of plastic items that are building up and polluting our land and our water, or big giant bulldozer's that tear down entire ecosystems. The truth is, humans are the ones that do all of the real damage to the world. We're the ones who are selfish and greedy. Without humans the earth would heal itself and be clean and bountiful. Animal's will never seek to destroy us or our homes. Animals will never try and kill us to hang us on their walls. Animals will never torture us for the sake of beauty products. Animals will never lay waste to our natural resources. Also they are intelligent. That rat you called gross can sniff out a bomb. Can you sniff out a bomb? No, so sit down. People say that the world belongs to humans but the earth is animals' home too. And they treat it a hell of a lot better than we do. Because they need it; they see no necessity in damaging it. They are the ones that actually keep it balanced and healthy by predating other plants and animals, pollinating plants, cleaning, increasing fertility and provide nutrients to soil, exhaling carbon dioxide for plants to convert into oxygen, providing us humans with everything we need to survive. And yet we are killing what we need to survive. People worry about the economy and place it higher than the environment and yet, without the environment there is no economy, or anything else for that matter.

Going back to this piece of legislation that just passed both the House and the Senate; I don't get why hunting like this would be allowed. Do people really not recognize how obviously cruel, unnecessary, and just plain sadistic it is? Or do they think cruelty is okay? Don't ever tell me that hunting is a sport. It's not a sport if the other team doesn't know that they're playing and if the "game" ends with one side losing their life. And what is sportsmanlike about any of the forms of hunting that this bill is allowing? What is sportsmanlike about invading the home of a family and killing a mother and it's babies while they're sleeping? What is sportsmanlike about offering up food only to shoot an innocent creature at pointblank range? What is sportsmanlike about stalking a creature from the air and raining down bullets on it when its just minding its own business? What is sportsmanlike about setting up a steel-jawed trap whose sharp teeth would painfully dig into any animal that came across it, forcing the animal to lay there in agony? What is sportsmanlike about taking the life of a creature that has done nothing wrong at all, especially when the animal is a poor defenseless baby? What is ok about tormenting it? Nothing. Some who hunt eat what they kill but this is typically only done with animals like deer or elk. Not many hunters eat bear meat because it is dangerous and has to be cooked thoroughly to prevent any kind of illness, and though some people have eaten dog, I've never heard of anyone eating a wolf. Bears and wolves are typically hunted as trophies meaning that they are losing their lives only so that some Jackhole can turn them into a rug or hang their head on a wall. That is what this bill is doing; it is making it okay for sadistic people to waste the lives of animals because they get some sort of twisted satisfaction out of it. Is that not disturbing? So the lives of animals go to waste, and in the process they suffer. There should not be a question about whether or not this should be allowed; this kind of thing should be shut down immediately. Put a human in the place of the animal in any of the situations I listed and then tell me that any of this is okay.

Senators and Representatives of the U.S., what are you teaching people by allowing this kind of cruelty to exist in the world? It is not just the greed and the selfishness of the human race that is destroying us, it is also our lack of empathy; our lack of kindness; our lack of respect for all life. These things that we are lacking are all things that animals possess. There are so many that paint animals as monsters and that is simply not true. And besides, humans can be monsters. We poison the world with our products, our gluttony, our machines, and our cruelty. And why? We are better than this. Our government is there to protect us, stop people from doing harm to us and our world, and make our world a better place; it should be better than this. The majority of voters in Alaska agreed that this bill is cruel; Politicians on both the right and the left agree that its cruel and yet it passed. Why? Why is the government allowing cruelty? How is this law beneficial to society? All it is doing is perpetuating violence and environmental damage. I'm sure that there would be people who would read this and hate on me for "hating on the government," but that is not what I am trying to do; it is no secret to anyone that our political system is flawed; but it doesn't have to be. We as people do not have to be cruel; our Politicians do not have to be cruel, and we do not have to support them if they are. This bill passed the House and the Senate but we can still fight it. You can still write directly to the President and tell him to stop this. I know that offers little hope but still. And we can still fight other bills like it that seek to destroy the other inhabitants of our world. We can protest, write to our representatives, donate to, and volunteer with organizations that seek to protect our wildlife, boycott products that involve animal testing or seek to harm animals. Cut down on our consumption and our waste; recycle. It's been crazy but there is hope for our world.

I asked why laws like this that hurt animals and the environment are made. But the fact is, I know why; we all know why. And we know it is wrong. We all have kindness within us. If there is ever a time to show it, it is under this current administration. By hurting our environment and animals we are only hurting ourselves.

Don't let Congress kill the Endangered Species Act. Follow this link to the National Resources Defense Council's website where they help you write a letter to your Representatives and your Senators telling them to protect endangered species. Make your voice heard! Peace and Love everybody!