End of life for Befriended Koala Sam

Following modified from AP Writer Tanalee Smith, Aug 6 09.
ADELAIDE, Australia – Sam the koala, who became globally-known when photographed drinking water from a firefighter's bottle during Australia’s devastating wild fires, had to be released from life after a veterinarian found multiple painful and inoperable cysts. She had been recuperating in a shelter since the February fires.
As fires raged, Sam was gingerly making her way on scorched paws past a fire patrol north of Melbourne when volunteer firefighter David Tree spotted her.He was photographed holding a bottle of water to her lips, an image that resonated around the world.
Tree was in tears last Thursday as he spoke to reporters about Sam's death.
"It means something to everyone," he said. "The focus was never meant to be ... on a firefighter. It's simply about our wildlife and just how precious it is."
The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with stress-related urogenital chlamydiosis, affecting more than 50 percent of Australia's koalas. Thousands die every year. During surgery Sam’s disease was found to be so advanced it was inoperable. "It was so severe that there was no possible way to be able to manage her pain," an official said.
Deborah Tabart, CEO of the Australian Koala Foundation, said she was saddened by Sam's death but noted that thousands of other koalas die every year of the disease and are not lamented nor cared for by the government.
"Sam's just the tip of the iceberg," Tabart said. "… Our koalas are in serious trouble across the country."
Sam was found in early February, when record temperatures, high winds and forests dried by years of drought set off infernos that swept a vast area of Victoria state, killing more than 170 people and destroying thousands of homes.
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Of course the human loss is tragic but the loss of "other" life -- as usual was not recorded.

Think of all the koalas with this stress-related disease. I don't know how we can bear to keep on creating a world of horror and nightmare for the animals who are our co-creatures on the globe. Our cruelty as we carpet the world with commercialism in the name of "progress" seems the prevailing characteristic of our species. I wish those who are awake enough to see it could stand on top of the towers in the world -- virtual and otherwise -- and scream "Stop" in voices so numerous they would go into outer space -- with the dear but almost hopeless dream that they could go into the inner spaces of global humanity.

Why do we automatically have the idea that it's alright to imprison the non-humans, to take away their places, to wear their skins, to torture and kill them by uncountable millions?