Knut is dead. Bye bye Knut. We all remember Knut? The white teddy bear in the Berlin Zoo. The white teddy unexpectedly kicked the bucket.
It is strange that Knut remained the little cute white teddy he once was in the public mind despite showing more of the ice monsterly features so common among his kind, according to recent photographic evidence. And now he's dead. Dutch broadsheet De Volkskrant devoted an entire photo special to the event. Pictures of mourning people, flowers and teddies in front of Knut's cage.
Flowers for a dead polar bear. We like laying flowers these last years. More and more so, it seems. It only takes someone well-known to die - human or not human - and we don't know how fast to make it to the florist to be able to participate in the public mourning. We started with Lady Di and now we lay flowers for a dead polar bear. The third phase this is.
Yes I know, the third phase is really the other way round if I have understood my sister's explanation on the subject. The third and last phase in human-animal relations is the stage at which the animal is completely at man's service. We do not need the animals anymore and do no longer depend on them. This phase is beautifully illustrated in the inconsiderate killing of thousands of pigs, hundreds of cows or goats and sheep when they are thought a threat to public health. What makes this the third phase is the fact that most of these animals are all healthy. Some of their kind have unfortunately caught a dangerous disease and the mere fact of being a cow, pig or goat as well means you have to die. Regardless if your stable is miles away from the infected farm. You are a potential threat and should therefore die a preemptive death. Who thought of laying flowers at the empty stables then?
No-one. Not even a comforting note to the gate of the farm concerned. Why should we mourn these animals or pay our respect to the devastated farmer? After all, it was 'only' livestock. Doomed for people's plates anyway. Not so Knut. A polar bear dies and it is almost a day of public mourning. And as he was definately not murdered in any way for any reason, we must conclude that Knut was sick. His vet was either too late or powerless to save him. Perhaps this is just as much the third phase as the pre-emptive killing of farm animals. Knut too was completely in our service. Instead we made him a merchandised living teddy. Hardly a polar bear at all, free to roam the ice in search of tasty seals and therefore just as little animal as the ready-to-be-eaten pigs. One a walking ham, the other a public teddy, but neither as they are: animals.
It is strange that Knut remained the little cute white teddy he once was in the public mind despite showing more of the ice monsterly features so common among his kind, according to recent photographic evidence. And now he's dead. Dutch broadsheet De Volkskrant devoted an entire photo special to the event. Pictures of mourning people, flowers and teddies in front of Knut's cage.
Flowers for a dead polar bear. We like laying flowers these last years. More and more so, it seems. It only takes someone well-known to die - human or not human - and we don't know how fast to make it to the florist to be able to participate in the public mourning. We started with Lady Di and now we lay flowers for a dead polar bear. The third phase this is.
Yes I know, the third phase is really the other way round if I have understood my sister's explanation on the subject. The third and last phase in human-animal relations is the stage at which the animal is completely at man's service. We do not need the animals anymore and do no longer depend on them. This phase is beautifully illustrated in the inconsiderate killing of thousands of pigs, hundreds of cows or goats and sheep when they are thought a threat to public health. What makes this the third phase is the fact that most of these animals are all healthy. Some of their kind have unfortunately caught a dangerous disease and the mere fact of being a cow, pig or goat as well means you have to die. Regardless if your stable is miles away from the infected farm. You are a potential threat and should therefore die a preemptive death. Who thought of laying flowers at the empty stables then?
No-one. Not even a comforting note to the gate of the farm concerned. Why should we mourn these animals or pay our respect to the devastated farmer? After all, it was 'only' livestock. Doomed for people's plates anyway. Not so Knut. A polar bear dies and it is almost a day of public mourning. And as he was definately not murdered in any way for any reason, we must conclude that Knut was sick. His vet was either too late or powerless to save him. Perhaps this is just as much the third phase as the pre-emptive killing of farm animals. Knut too was completely in our service. Instead we made him a merchandised living teddy. Hardly a polar bear at all, free to roam the ice in search of tasty seals and therefore just as little animal as the ready-to-be-eaten pigs. One a walking ham, the other a public teddy, but neither as they are: animals.
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