Good and Bad Animals (And People)

When I was a little boy growing up in South Florida in the sixties, we had basically two types of ants to contend with: red ants and black ants. If I were to stumble upon an ant hill, I took care to notice which type of ants lived in it. For the red ants bit and the black ants didn’t. So I drew the moral conclusion that the black ants were the “good” ants and the red ants were the “bad” ants. Of course, in thinking this way I was being the immature little kid that I naturally was. But our society, while claiming maturity, does just the same thing with animals.

Chimpanzees have recently been in the news, due to the story of the chimp who seriously injured a woman out in California. Hearkening back to the days of Cheetah in the Tarzan flicks, chimpanzees have always enjoyed a positive image as being intelligent, fun-loving and social. But did you know that wild chimpanzees in Africa have been reported to eat people, especially little children? The hippopotamus, with its big eyes, cute little ears, and lumbering body is also the recipient of an undeserved popular press. But hippopotamus attacks account for more fatalities in Africa from wild animal attacks than from any other animal. Other animals that folks generally think are good but can surprise and injure with their aggression are dolphins and swans.

On the other end, snakes get abysmal popularity ratings, although attacks from them tend to be defensive in origin. Gorillas have been common horror/sci fi movie material, but in truth their behavior would generally match up much better with human “civilized” behavior than would their relatives, the chimpanzees.

It is peculiar how some animals are stereotyped as “good” or “bad”. Who can forget the assorted cartoon shorts from childhood (Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Tom and Jerry, Mighty Mouse) that depict mice as the good guys, cats as the evil predators, and dogs as the benign (and brutish) allies of the mice. But isn’t this typecasting of animals just a reflection of how people treat each other?

The booming cosmetics, botox, and plastic surgery industries base themselves on the idea that people are obsessed with their appearances, and for good reason. Those regarded as attractive will receive much better respect and treatment from others throughout their lives. In our movies, aren’t the good-looking people the good guys and the ugly ones the villains? Just take Lord of the Rings with its hideous orcs and beautiful elves. Or the recent Batman movie The Dark Knight with Harvey Dent the District Attorney. This character is a “good guy” until he becomes disfigured by severe burning. Then, in his physical ugliness, he becomes evil and joins the bad guys (including Heath Ledger’s equally hideous Joker).

We need to overcome our stereotyped views of both people and animals. All of us are born into this one life of ours with a capacity to change, but much of what we are we have no real control over. And those things shouldn’t make a difference to others. But sadly, they often are the things that can determine to a great extent the degree of success or failure in our struggles for social acceptance and material prosperity.