permaculture

["Rene and Lorraine van Raders" <rvraders@tpgi.com.au>]

Dear PIJ
Re Cats and Dogs
I would like to share a thought provoking experience.  Last year Lorraine
and I taught a PC Design course in Sri Lanka.   The "stray" dogs were one
of the first things we noticed (a major obstacle on our 3 hour night
journey from the airport).

Dogs were everywhere, scratching through the rubbish, often no more than
skin and bone.   My immediate response was that this was awful, and a
problem to be addressed.   I don't pretend to have come to a complete
understanding of this situation but I did obtain some new insights on
discussing it with some thinking buddhist friends.   They were against the
government control program, stating that killing the dogs was not part of
their culture.  Then they explained that the dogs were merely
manifestations of the disturbed environment.  There were so many dogs, to
redress an imbalance in the environment (loss of forest and natural
predators / scavengers, lack of recycling systems).  Reducing dog numbers
was just attacking the symptom... something we avoid in pc, right!?

So I would have to agree with Philippa Howells (letters issue 66), that an
attack on dogs, cats or grass can be energy wasting exercise without
addressing underlying issues and attitudes.  Dogs, cats and grass are all
species that have their place in natural and man-made systems.

I'm convinced that in our western culture the imbalance isn't so much an
unused waste resource (Sri Lankan scavenging animals), but an emotional
space that wants filling.   Pets respond with love (cupboard love, but it
still feels great); the rotweiller sure gives protection and a few macho
points.   The beautiful lawn wins the respect of our peers (unless you've
got pc friends - then you get rid of your lawn as fast as possible).

It seems to me that our environmental problems are largely psychological in
nature.  Now that's a real design challenge.



Rene van Raders