Our world and society never ceases to piss me off. We destroy everything we touch: the planet, other humans, animals and plants... Even animals we try to rescue.
Such was the case yesterday when in Argentina a young dolphin was rescued from beaching by a large crowd of people. Yet, despite knowing consciously that this dolphin, who was at risk of suffocation and dehydration by beaching, required water to live, the crowd of people decided it was a prime opportunity to take selfies with the young creature.
How stupid are we as a group of people? Oh, here's an animal that needs water to live and is being prevented fro, accessing it; let me help by making myself look good and taking a picture. Oh, it doesn't matter. It would die anyway, right?
Not only was this a living, suffering creature enduring slow death due to human vanity, but it was also a member of a critically endangered species. This means future numbers of the species will have a significantly lower population, as all potential offspring are now void due to this death.
This animal didn't have to die. It was due to narcissism, vanity, and the crave of attention. Everyone wanted to take a picture with the dolphin, this rare dolphin that could very possibly disappear off the face of the earth, because it would look so cool on social media, and everyone would no doubt love it and be envious, right? But where does it end? When one is allowed a picture, everyone will begin to want a selfie with the dolphin, and as this desire consumes the mass of people, it's impossible to stop. Who actually thinks that one person standing alone could stop a greedy crowd by saying "It needs water. You're going to kill it!"? No chance, not with mob mentality in a mass that big. That dolphin had no chance. Despite the majority, if not entirety, of that crowd knowing that dolphins require water to live, that picture was just to priceless, too cool. Well what is it worth now, a worthless scrap of paper with your disgusting face on it next to a tortured, suffocating creature that if it could, would be calling out for help? You make me sick. This entire occurrence makes me sick.
Even after the dolphin strained for a last breath, and died in the arms of its "rescuers", people continued to take selfies with and pictures of the now dead dolphin. Look at how cool it is, this dead dolphin we saved! Omg we're heroes! Shut the fuck up. This was direct murder, even if unintentional, of a valuable life. You have nothing to blame but human vanity and the idiocy of people. So congratulations. You saved and killed a dolphin in one day. That wasn't even enough. After it died, you couldn't even respect it enough as a creature and as a deceased to leave it be. No, you wanted pictures. Would you take photos of grandpa in his casket, arms folded and eyes closed? No. So what makes this dolphin any different? Just because it's an animal? This argument could be used to support even animal testing, which is a whole other argument that I won't get into here, but is still valid. The difference is, people don't value animals because they don't see them as human. To humans, animals are like objects, shiny, magical and mystical objects that we must take photos with to seem above others. It is disgusting. As a species, we are disgusting.
I could keep going and get into more reasons why I don't like people much, or what we're doing wrong. However, this rant was inspired by the deceased dolphin in Argentina, and out of respect, I will leave this rant as solely that. Rest in peace unnamed dolphin. I'm sorry we did this to you.
