Love of Money - The Killing of 22,000,000 Monarch Butterflies
A Shooting Ourselves in the Foot: The Sanitizing of Violence in Our Society Article from All-Creatures.org

Throughout the ages, we have accepted killing, violence, and violent behavior as just being a part of life - it's time we change!

By: Frank L. Hoffman

On 6 March 2001 it was reported that 22,000,000 monarch butterflies were killed by spraying them with insecticide in their protected forest land in central Mexico, about 70 miles west of Mexico City.

Every winter the monarch butterfly migrates to their sanctuaries in the State of Michoacan in central Mexico from as far away as Canada, a distance of as many as 3,000 miles.  These beautiful creatures blanket the forest trees and floor with their fluttering brilliant orange and black wings.  This migration has been going on for as long as recorded history, and has been estimated to have been happening for as long as 10,000 years.

Now, for the love of short-term money and in an attempt to have these sanctuaries closed down and made available for logging, loggers have purportedly sprayed the monarchs with insecticide, killing an estimated 22,000,000 of their species, as well as untold millions of other creatures.

This was an evil act perpetrated by selfish, self-centered and unfeeling evil people whose only goal in life seems to be rape, slash, pillage, and burn for their own immediate self-gratification.  To do such a thing, these people couldn't care about God, or about other people, or about the animals, or about the environment.  They are evil, and I can think of no other logical explanation for their act of premeditated mass murder.

It is too early to tell the ultimate lasting effect of this despicable act on the monarch as a species, but in the short-term, we have lost a legacy of beauty.  We have once again shot ourselves in the foot by sanitizing violence in our society, the type of violence that would lead people to justify such a horrible act.

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5 NASV)

Monarch photo by Sue Holloway - Creatured Connection

Go on to: LOVE OF MONEY: Participating in the Cruelty of Bullfighting
Return to: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot