In Defense of Vultures

First off, a special announcement before my regularly scheduled, but unusually bizarre, post for this week.  United We Game has been working on our February community posts, where us admins and our many contributors all write posts on a single topic, this one being about levels from the “Super Mario Bros.” series.  We decided to do things a bit differently this time and have each of these articles posted on all the blogs of everyone contributing.  And so, starting Sunday, February 23, and continuing for the next eight days, this blog will be one of many to host these community posts, one post each day.  I hope you enjoy reading them!  (In case you’re curious, the Duck’s will be posted on Saturday, March 1.)

Anyway, my usual post…  Ahem, this may seem like a rather odd topic for a blog post, but after hearing the ill will long enough that people feel towards such creatures as vultures and buzzards, those scavengers that eat the bodies of the dead, I thought I needed to speak up in defense of these poor creatures.  I beseech you, society, pray tell why you dislike these poor creatures just because they eat the dead?  Humans eat dead animals, not typically ones that are still alive, and they are not looked down upon for it.  Would it be better if the vulture ate the living?  If they preyed upon the creatures that still moved about?  Would it be better if they hunted rabbits like the hawk or gazelles like the lion, creating fear in the hearts of their victims before they meet a grisly end?  Nay, to do such things is cruel, I say.  To chase down a creature that still has the breath of life in it is far more terrible a thing to do than to prey on that whose heart has already ceased beating.

The majestic vulture is not an evil creature.  I could argue that it is, in fact, a most kind creature, as it doesn’t inflict pain on the living like so many predators do.  They hurt no one, and they also work to clean up our planet by recycling and making use of the bodies of things that have perished.  Oh, mighty vulture, I do not have any quarrel with you.  Nay, I say society does you a disservice, looking down their noses at you like you are some criminal.  You did not kill that poor creature; nay, man did with their vehicular transports, only to leave it there to rot.  Why is it so wrong if the vulture comes and cleans it away?  The creature has met an unlucky end, but at least its demise was not for nothing.

And so, dear readers, after reading this most bizarre of posts, I ask that you give the vulture and those similar to it a second chance.  They are not so vile a creature as people make them out to be.  Just as us ducks don’t leave droppings around ponds as much as you think.  That’s the geese.

The Duck, Friend of Carrion-Eaters Everywhere