Finding Animals

Again first off, I have to agree with Hilary that I did not have any idea that the program was going to end when it did. If only we had waited even 2 more minutes.

I really enjoyed attending this and I feel I got a lot out of it much of what all three speakers discussed. The first speaker, Cary Wolfe, was really interesting when he talked about animal rights. Should we treat animals as property or as persons. I never realized before what a huge debate this was and how critical it can be in many aspects of life. Comparing race and the Holocaust to the treatment of animals was a really intriguing way of describing the whole thing. I thought it was really neat when he talked about viruses and whether or not they should be treated as living creatures even if it goes against human life, just as we had discussed in class on Thursday. It is definitely a topic that I want to discuss more with people and think about. Especially with the Swine Flu (H1N1?) happening now right all around us.
The second speaker, Gregg Mitman, I found to be speak of the topics that interest me the most. When he was discussing the crazy animal sex that floods our televisions, I never thought about how that it is kind of weird that our society loves it. I think we will continue to see more and more films on wildlife and nature. He talked about how not much is given back to the areas and animals filmed in the process. There is no mention of animals on the credits and these movies are making millions of dollars. The third speaker, Donna Haraway, also had some really good points in her speech. I liked how she told of living things taking care of country. She also brought the animals belongingness into question. Do we allow animals to be a part of our lives. Finally, I never knew that bees could be used to keep elephants away from crops. I really like the idea of finding alliances with nature to help better ourselves. I feel this method goes against nature and the animals the least. Overall, I am really glad I went to this tonight, it opened my eyes to a lot of ideas I never thought about before.