Cute Hungry Seals
In two weeks The Marine Mammal Center is unveiling their new facility in Marin for taking care of sick and stranded marine mammals. They are a wonderful operation, and I’ve been proud to support their efforts for some time. Of course we’re all going to their open house. It does get me to thinking though about how useful it is to be cute. Let’s face it, we all love seals and sea lions for pretty much the same reason we love dogs and cats – they’re smart, cute, fun animals. Who can’t appreciate these guys? And I admit I too love a cute animal when I see one. But if you think about it, a lot of the biodiversity on earth is hardly cute. A lot of it is very small and inconspicuous. Others are quite ugly or simply boring. Statistically, most species of animals are beetles. Probably by volume, most of them are nematodes. Ok, so who wants to go to The Marine Worm Center ? No? Not you? Why not? Really if we’re serious about maintaining a healthy planet, we have to think about the living conditions for ALL organisms. But by our nature we tend to focus more on those that are relatively like ourselves. Clearly, getting people involved in the Marine Mammal Center is a good thing – their patients need the help, and by spreading the conservation message it will have collateral benefits for everything else. Yet somehow we have to also learn to look beyond the cute, and worry equally about all the small or unappealing critters and treasure their lives as well.
But then again as someone who views dogs and cats as part of the family, it’s hard not to notice that seals also have big eyes and look at you…..
