Why New Zealand's Policy Of Killing Animals Harms Children - US Ecologist

An article by an American ethologist/behavioral ecologist Marc Bekoff in “Psychology Today”, points to a strong link between cruelty to animals and violence towards humans, vitally important in the light of mass shootings murders.

"Ample research backs up the finding that there is a direct link between acts of cruelty to animals and violence toward humans. This includes child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse and other violent behavior....[a] study, published in 2013, found that 43 percent of those who commit school massacres also committed acts of cruelty to animals—generally against cats and dogs,” says Marc Bekoff.The recent mass murders in US, i.e.Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Tex., once again brought to light the link between violence toward nonhuman animals (animals) and violence toward humans.1

"New Zealand's brutal war on non-native wildlife is fairly well-known internationally, and their focus on teaching and encouraging youngsters to kill these sentient beings as part of their formal, sanctioned education, has raised many concerns not only about their learning to harm and kill other animals but also about the long-term effects of engaging in these practices.2.3

Michael Morris of the Royal Agricultural University carried out a rigorous analysis of the link. References from the Morris essay were "Primary school education resources on conservation in New Zealand over-emphasise killing of non-native mammals" clearly show why there is a good deal of concern over teaching youngsters to disrespect, harm, and kill animals they're taught not to like.

School children have been and are continued to be encouraged to hunt, trap, and drown possums, and then to humiliate their corpses (Morris, 2020; Tulloch, 2018).

Most accounts of abuse are from rural schools, though an Auckland primary school has also created controversy with one of its teachers rhetorically asking “Which are the animals that you want to kill the MOST?” said Marc Bekoff.

Marc Bekoff questioned the damage by wild animals as promoted by the Department of Conservation.

"The Department of Conservation (DoC) (2018a) claims, "possums also eat eggs and chicks of endemic birds such as the kereru and kokako." This is controversial because only a few instances of possums eating birds have ever been documented (Morris, 2020) and 50 years of stomach content analysis has not revealed any remnants of birds, bird eggs, or endangered invertebrates.”.

He referred to comments by Michael Morris who noted that "Encouraging shooting and poisoning as some sort of game trivialises the suffering that these activities cause. Once more, the text states that possums directly eat native birds and their eggs. The DoC steps outside its conservation mandate, justifying killing possums because they threaten the animal agriculture industry, and because they are a ‘nuisance’ in suburban gardens.”

"Educational curricula should emphasise compassion, empathy, kindness, and coexistence rather than killing other animals for fun or "in the name of conservation." Given the strong evidence about the long-term psychological effects of violence toward other animals and violence toward humans, teaching youngsters that the life of every single individual matters would be a move in the right direction. These sorts of lessons would be a win-win for all, nonhuman and human alike, said Marc Bekoff.

Footnote:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202206/why-new-zealands-policy-killing-animals-harms-children

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