Whose side are you on? Predator or Prey?

Have you ever watched National Geographic and found yourself supporting both the lion and the antelope?

There is a lion chasing an antelope across the savannah. You want the antelope to escape. It is such a beautiful, helpless animal, running for its life but then you look at the lion, she doesnt eat grass and has hungry cubs waiting for her to bring something home. She needs to eat and her cubs need to survive.

So who do you support, the lion or the antelope? There is a meme I once saw of a cheetah chasing a gazelle. The cheetah is praying, "Give us this day our daily bread." Meanwhile, the gazelle is praying to the very same God, "Deliver us from evil."

Imagine being God. Both prayers are perfectly reasonable and both animals are hungry for life, although in very different ways. One is asking for lunch, while the other is asking not to become lunch. Whose prayer do you answer?

Anyway, I found myself in a similar situation at home the other day. My cat, Kaitlin, caught a bird and brought it into the house. It was a lovely little blue and grey bird with a red patch on its face. I couldn't help but admire it. Unfortunately, Kaitlin was admiring it for different reasons.

Now, I am fond of my cat. I feed her, look after her, and generally make sure she has a comfortable life. But I also love birds, and there was this poor little bird, flapping desperately, trying to escape from the jaws of Kaitlin.What was I supposed to do? Kaitlin is a cat and cats hunt because it is in their nature. I cannot expect her to abandon millions of years of evolution simply because I have developed feelings for a bird. But Kaitlin, surely! I feed you every day. You have food in your bowl, and have never had to chase anything for your next meal. Is this really necessary?

The bird, maybe had chicks somewhere waiting for it. When it was caught, it had come out to look for worms and had no idea it was about to become somebody else's meal. I wanted to rescue it, but then I felt I was interfering with nature. After all, this is the food chain. Cats eat birds, birds eat worms, worms... well, I am not sure what worms eat, but somebody is always eating somebody somewhere. That is how nature works.

We people like to think we are above all this because we are supposedly at the top of the food chain. Although, if you think about it, there are plenty of situations where we are also somebody else's lunch... those predators that wear suits, have large tumbos, drive tinted mp'enkoni, and the eating is done rather differently. But I digress, back to Kaitlin and the bird.

There I was, standing in the house contemplating. Should I save the bird? Should I let Kaitlin enjoy her hunting success? Was I being cruel to the bird or unfair to the cat? But mostly, why was I making myself responsible for administering justice in the animal kingdom?

I finally decided that I would save the bird, but just as I was about to intervene, the bird freed itself and flew away. And that was that..the bird survived, Kaitlin lost her lunch, which she didn't need anyway and I was spared the difficult business of choosing between two creatures I like.

Nature settled this dispute while I was still busy deciding whose side to take. From where my feet are...