I guess I'm not enough of an extraordinarily caring person to have the thought of going out and campaigning for their protection cross my mind on any sort of a regular basis either, but I can't stand to SEE them tormented. I am a friend and defender of numerous of God's creatures when our life's paths happen to cross. I pick up preying mantis, little frogs, and caterpillars off the school sidewalks and put them safely in trees or under bushes. I stop kids when they decide to catch such critters and keep them forever in their pencil boxes. I have rescued MANY a bug and critter from curious toddlers' hands, and I've shown children how to carefully hold God's creatures or to "just look but not touch." God created such a wondrous beautiful world for us with such interesting and sometimes bizarre wildlife on it, which I never really appreciated until I explored with small children and saw these creatures "through their eyes." It is great when children consciously try to be careful with God's creations and I love teaching them to do so.
Now, that is for creatures who are outside, in their own environment. We shouldn't disturb them or destroy their homes just because of curiosity of what they look like on the inside or because we're in a bad mood. When I was growing up, Dad taught us to even handle ANY toy with a "face" kindly. He said if we made a habit of even being careful with dolls and stuffed animals, that it would be much easier to ALWAYS be careful with real people and animals.
But again, that's with creatures in THEIR OWN environment, not crossing the line into MY environment. Even then, when possible, I often catch and release (or stand on a chair screaming and pointing and instructing my kids to catch and release). Years ago there was an old dresser that I was going to try to clean up and use which was sitting out in a storage. I was pregnant at the time. I had gloves on and was throwing away the old stuff left in the drawers. When I opened the top drawer, which was not very deep, there was a tiny mouse with several itty-bitty babies in a "nest" of ripped up paper. It startled me so bad I nearly slammed the drawer shut which might of decapitated the poor mother who didn't scurry off but rose up as tall as she possibly could and "growled" her fiercest mama bear roar at me, which was barely audible but unmistakable all the same. A huge part of me thought, "EEEWWWW gross, kill it, get it OUT of here!!!! Don't you dare bite me, I'm pregnant and don't you dare hurt my baby!!!" and a quick vision of chasing it off with a broom flashed in my mind. But this tiny creature was a mama too, and her fierce loyalty to her little hairless things really got to me. I guess I was really stupid but I carried that drawer out of the storage and walked out into the wilderness a bit (we often lived in/next to wilderness) and left the drawer by a bush. Then I went and showered and washed and scrubbed for a long time.
When fast moving poisonous, or possibly poisonous, creatures enter my domain, especially when they are near children, I send them to insect heaven as quickly and painlessly and "humanely" as I possibly can (this usually involves our water base vacuum or the sole of the largest heaviest shoe within my reach or a handful of tissues a quick squish and a flush). Sometimes I can trap them under a cup/bowl and then figure a way to get them out, but every so often, poor things, I just have to wait for it to die to dispose of it. This messes with my mind and soul and I do not like this situation.
I don't seem to have any compassion for snakes though - I know God created them, that God doesn't make mistakes, but there is just something really WRONG about a living thing not having any legs or fins or something. (At least my objection to serpents hasn't rubbed off on my daughter who loves to find them and play with them as much as her brothers do.) I also have very little sympathy for wasps. Bees are our friends and I'm always telling kids to respect them and appreciate them and bees, and bee stings, don't cause major problems for me. Wasps though, they are down right cruel. I think they have it in for me personally.
Two summers ago I was wearing a loose short sleeved shirt and reaching out and up while cleaning outside and moving some stuff and I unknowingly split open a wasps nest and they swarmed around me and several flew in my shirt sleeve and stung me numerous times in the armpit. Michael was right near me and the other kids were close. I hollered for them to get INSIDE and shut the door and Michael helped me get away from the swarm. He got stung a few times on the hand doing so. Michael put Tabasco Sauce (he keeps some in his Scout first aid kit) on his bites and was okay, but my heart was RACING and I started passing out on the lawn (where ants started crawling all over me) and the kids called 911 and an ambulance took me to the ER. I was fine several hours later and felt VERY FOOLISH!
A few months after that (again working outside) wasps stung me several times on my left hand before I got away. My hand swelled up and it HURT something awful, but being way out on my hand, it didn't seem to be affecting any major organs and we tried to take care of it ourselves. One of the things we tried had almond oil in it, which I am allergic to, and my hand and wrist got HUGE and cut off circulation so I drove myself (one handed not in a stick shift) to the ER.
This morning, while indoors with my boots off, I suddenly felt a small stab by my left ankle and pain shooting through my foot and leg and looked down and there was a wasp limping around and my foot which was already swelling! This time I grabbed a bottle of something I know contains no nuts and slathered the wound and my foot with it. So far no trips to the ER. Then I went back and put a cup over the wasp, got another cup and some tape and created a sort of plastic Easter egg effect with tape holding the two halves together and went to toss it outside for a few days until it would be safe to dispose of the little demon's body. A quick flash of joy at the wasp's suffering flashed through me as I opened the door and went to set it out. I stopped - I couldn't knowingly torment it just for my revenge but I didn't know how to safely release it or kill it without it getting me again. Silly stupid sappy me, I limped over to the toilet and OPENED my contraption and somehow got an angry wasp straight from the cup prison into the swirling water and out of his (and my) misery - so I could have a clear conscience.
update - my foot and ankle are swollen but not life threateningly so, and there's a dull pain. I was able to squeeze into a pair of flats I've been wearing when I KNOW I'll be on flat level stable non-icy ground, like church. Jacob had a great time pushing on the top of my water balloon of a foot and whispering loudly, "It's squishy," in that eeww-it's-gross-but-so-fascinating-I-can't-stop sort of way off and on through Ward Conference today.
