 To Accuse A Cat of Murder
It happened at the end of July. I was trying to get used to the summer, and was staying at
my aunt's for a while. She was reading her daily newspaper while I was zapping between
music channels as usual. After reading all the things she wanted to, she handed the
newspaper to me and showed me a column. Her eyes were shining, just as if she felt that
her entire philosophy about life had shifted because of something fascinating. "Take
a look at this," she said. Obviously, she was sure that I'd admire what was written
in the column.
I read it, and my expression must have gotten worse with every word. Something in me was
saying that I should like what it said, but I didn't. What excited my aunt was a
"heroic" adventure: the columnist had saved a bird from a cat's wrath. The cat
was going to "kill" the bird and was probably planning to eat it (how savage,
huh?). But our great columnist, or should I call him "the hero," caught the cat,
and saved the bird.
If one doesn't take a deeper look at this act, it seems all right. But, as an expert in
unnecessary questions, I felt the urge to ask why it's bad for a cat to eat a bird. Can
you blame a cat because it prefers a canary to a can of food that's processed in a
factory?
Hiding behind the words of pity for the bird lies an ancient obsession: Humans (see how
neutral I am?) want to see everything in order. Since times long before Aristotle, we've
felt the need to name everything, classify everything and finally--and inevitably--expect
every living thing to follow our rules wherever we have control. We think it's a favor to
take an animal from nature and change it into a living, breathing piece of furniture
called a pet. An animal isn't allowed to eat another animal unless it's living in an
"uncivilized" area and we don't see it except on the National Geographic
channel.
We can't even stand wild grass, although we all know that the grass in a lawn isn't
different from any other kind of grass. Those who claim that they're nature-lovers enjoy
killing hundreds of plants in order to make their gardens look better. We talk about
liberation and freedom all day long while we try to impose a dictatorship over other
species. And it seems like we're not ashamed of lying to ourselves. "Humans are the
most clever beings on earth," huh? Yeah, sure…
İsmail O. Postalcıoğlu (POLS/III)
ismail_orhan@yahoo.com
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