There is no shortage of tragedy in the news, but when it befalls an animal it takes on a particular kind of emotional intensity
Spong was beached and died on a sandbar in March, T109A3A swam through the shallow water into a remote Vancouver Island lagoon and wouldn’t leave.
Then, early Friday, news from the Ehattesaht First Nation: “At 2:30 a.m. during the high tide on a clear and glass-calm, star-filled night, Kwee-sa-hay-is swam past the sandbar her mother passed away on ... all on her own,” Chief Simon JohnThere is no shortage of terrible news, no paucity of heinous human death tolls. Still, an animal tragedy can trigger a particular kind of emotional intensity.
There’s something I’ve noticed in news broadcasts. When a tragedy involves an animal, the news reader sometimes adds an adverb to the story: “Unfortunately.” When do you hear that word used in a report about a human death? Or thousands of them? Even the hardened heart of a journalist, it seems, can be twisted up by stories about animals in trouble.
The answer to why stories about animals affect us so deeply may be as simple as the uncomplicated love we receive from them. The loss of a pet is often a child’s first experience with death and grief.
Column Opinion Marsha Lederman Lederman Animal Karen Zoo University Pet Calf Property Story Karen Hunter
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