Insect Hunting
During today’s Field Biology class, we went insect hunting. As part of the curriculum, we have been tasked with capturing and classifying a total of 15 different specimens from five different types of organizational families. It is nothing out of the ordinary considering this is a *field* biology class, but upon being handed a ‘kill jar’ where to let the insects suffocate in ethyl acetate, I wondered why we are so O.K. (as a society) with killing small animals but not larger ones such as mammals (i.e. puppies). The more successful arguments usually make reference to the fact that insects have a less developed pain system. Similarly, you can try to argue that they don’t have a consciousness–or at least not the same level of consciousness we do. But I ask: considering that they are also alive creatures who simply strive to survive the same way we do, why does the value of their life lie on our ability to sympathize with the complexity of their awareness? I am by no means saying we–as humans–should value insects and humans equally, but I do think we–as a society–should by daunted by our ability to take lives so mindlessly.
Tags: field biology, insects
