As a descendant of indigenous ancestors who lived on their lands for some 10K+ years before invasion, as well as the descendant of western cattle ranchers and european peasants, I’ve long felt the collision between the culture of civilization and land-based, indigenous cultures (or, between domination of the land and partnership with the land).
I imagine you might have felt very angry at the bear, for returning a third time (third time’s the charm as they say). Perhaps also very protective of the goats as property or loving them more than other species like bears or cougars.
Rhetorical Qs that come to mind, the kind that also tend to naturally emerge from the innate wisdom of certain kinds of human children who are supported to express it - and who know the natural world enough to love it deeply and want to understand it.
Couldn’t the bear just eat a goat though, being an ancient natural predator of small mammals like goats and deer???
Why are farm animals of more value than wild predators who’ve been born for countless generations on the living land, and inhabited it much MUCH longer than any western farmer?
Isn’t it humans’ responsibility to, if the best effort at fencing fails, give up the goat literally and figuratively??? Or the veggie garden to the deer, as the case may be, knowing that next year it’ll be different (a better fence, barn, etc).
I empathize with small farmers - there are daily grinds and weather, and painful losses - which I benefit from, a lot, as a foodie who is able to buy from local farmers and far away ones via the market.
And, I think industrial culture’s human supremacy has deeply affected, and socialized how we view the wilderness and the wild ones (as separate from us). If we fear the bear (the other) or are angry at it for just being itself, we are more likely to use lethal force, rather than other viable options, etc.
