Anytime money enters the picture...

then our animal sisters and brothers will pay with suffering, misery and death. Anytime some advantage is seen for a human animal, then our animals siblings will pay with more suffering, misery and death.

American Bison skulls, circa 1870

The annihilation of the vast Buffalo herds offered a dual benefit to the United States, the killing of the Buffalo also helped destroy Native American societies.  Check out the meaning of genocide.

If you think the persecution of the Buffalo for greed is an historical anomaly, then you might want to read this story about what is currently occurring in Montana. We are still trading the lives of the Buffalo for dollar bills.

I sometimes wonder if many (if not most) of our human animal cultures aren't led around by the sociopaths among us.

A Sociopath is a person who lacks two very human characteristics, a conscience and the ability to feel empathy for another human being. They never feel guilt or remorse for their actions and have no capacity to love. To sociopaths, other people are only things to be manipulated, dominated and exploited. 

Needless to say, sociopaths have no feelings for animals that don't happen to be human either. Are these the yahoos that are driving our cultures? Estimates of the frequency of this condition in human populations range from 1 to 4 percent. Given the current population of the US, that means there are anywhere from 3 to 12 million of these grotesque beings around. If you want to get really spooked, read Martha Stout's book The Sociopath Next Door.

By the way, you might want to consider this. The US is a culture that rewards, strongly, many behaviors associated with sociopathy.  Ruthless business operations including pursuit of profit above all else, "salesmanship", "marketing", etc. Sound familiar? You might want to watch The Corporation, a documentary that details how "successful" businesses are more often than not indistinguishable in their behavior from that of sociopaths.

Is it the case that human cultures typically acquiesce to the sociopaths among them? Is that why we are so lethal to the other Earthlings? What the hell is going on? How can horrors like that depicted in the photo above happen?

I ran across the photo and wanted to write something about it. I discovered we are still destroying the Buffalo for money (or just for the hell of it) and then got to wondering why...why does this crap just go on and on and on?

Maybe it is just that the sociopaths influence so much of what is considered "normal". Although I gotta tell ya, anybody that considers what is shown in the above photograph as "normal", is a whacko  as far as I am concerned. Yet, if the bones of all the animals killed every day were stacked up, one days bones next to another days bones, next to another days bones....would those massive killings be considered a "normal" event?

I can't accept it as normal, I can't accept killing a sentient being for no good reason (and "tasting good" is not a legitimate reason, profit is not a good reason). The killing (and/or suffering) of these beings is wrong and repugnant and abhorrent and disgusting.