Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Defending Squirrels Rationally

I want to start off by saying that I accidentally rejected some comments that were posted. There was one post about cooking squirrels that I was trying to delete, but I accidentally deleted all of the ones I selected thinking I was only deleting that one post. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about how I noticed that most of us squirrel enthusiasts are very compassionate people, but we tend to use emotions to defend our little friends. Emotions are part of what makes us human. However, I believe it is also possible to defend squirrels with logic and rationality, in addition to emotion.

When scientists study squirrels in the wild, they appreciate the roles squirrels play in the ecosystem. The more knowledge that is obtained about squirrels, the greater our appreciation of them becomes.

The squirrel haters claim that they have logical reasons to hate squirrels. They also claim that squirrel lovers "feel" too much. The main problem with their arguments is that they become cold and relentless with their reasoning, which robs them of their humanity. While it is okay to show emotions, and perhaps use only emotion, to care for small creatures. But adding sound reasoning skills will improve our ability to confront the squirrel haters who assume that all we do is feel and not think. I believe a good balance between logic and emotion is necessary.

4 comments:

squirrelmama said...

Right you are! It is OK to love squirrels - and "confess" that love - but the bottom line is that, whether you love them or not, they are still a valued part of the ecosystem, architects of the forests, and (sorry to say) even part of the natural world's food chain.
They aerate soil by their digging, they plant trees.....and they amuse us humans!

Anonymous said...

Would like to know what do you think about the relationship between hawks and squirrels.

And if you are against falconry
( hunting with hawks) squirrels :)

Anonymous said...

would like to know what do you think about the relationship between hawks and squirrels.
And if you are against falconry ( hunting squirrels with hawks). :)

Unknown said...

I just found two baby squirrels.. I waited a few hrs before taking action... The mother never showed I tended to the babies wounds the best I could and took them in as my own... They r very young only weeks old... I've had them for a week or so what is the chance of them surviving longer... I didn't think they was going to make it past the first night... I also read about taking care of newborn squirrels the websit I found was very helpful but I would like to know a little more and would like ur opinion on what I should further do...