TO Ranchers -- Please think

As my last post of 2011, a copy of the email letter I just wrote to the California Cattlemen's Association,largest such group in the U.S.

California Cattlemen's Association
1221 H Street
Sacramento CA 95814

It's clear your industry has a history, a culture, a set of principles and ethics. It's clear that your lives and the lives of your families and loved ones are interwoven into your industry.

I am one of the people you probably hate because I question human killing of "wild" animals. I write on this last day of 2011 hoping to communicate as one good-hearted human to a special group of other good-hearted humans. I know you have much-repeated phrases and thoughts for those who oppose killing of wolves and coyotes by ranchers. But please think, even for a few seconds, beyond the familiar ideas and concepts.

Some people think a new crest of consciousness is arising among human beings, a realization that our most meaningful next evolutionary move will be to reconsider our attitudes and behavior toward the "wild," toward the animals and other living beings who are our co-inhabitants on earth, our only home. You may think of us as crazies or liberals or elitists, whatever -- I ask you for a moment to rise above such labels and I will try with all my heart to think of you not as focused wholly on profit and quick to kill as a kneejerk reaction to a "problem."

Is it right to kill animals because they are predators? We humans are the apex predators on the planet. Should we be killed because we kill? As our human domain expands, areas for other inhabitants continually shrink. Contact between our species increases. Certainly some of the cattlemen's meat animals may be killed by a "wild" predator.

Is mass killing of predator animals actually the best solution? Does any human being have the right to insist on living and working on lands, or to be on adjacent lands, where all "wildlife" must be killed, for convenience and profit? Is there a possibility "their" lives are as precious as ours? Is killing of "wild"animals the example we want to give to our children and to other societies? American representatives work continuously with "emerging" companies to stop them from killing "wild life," citing ecological and ethical reasons. Not one of us owns the planet; every one of us has a profound interest in what is done by us to the "wild" places of the planet.

Does it ultimately help human life to eliminate "wild" life? Our understanding and studies about the web of life are still in early stages. But we know it is this web to which we owe our existence and on which we must rely for our future. Who will be part of the change in thinking that will be essential for ourselves, for our descendants, and for the soul of the world?

If our co-inhabitants in life and on earth WITH us cannot live on this planet, then it will be true -- sooner than later -- that we cannot live here either. We thrash about in the web of life at our peril.

If you have read this far, I thank you with all the sincerity of my heart.

Very truly yours -- China Altman