HUNTED

“Mom. Look at my roar! Meowwww!!”

“Hahaha. My son! That was a big roar indeed!”

“No. Why is my roar not as big and ferocious as yours?” questioned the little cub, cuddling up to his mother.

“My son. You are still young. You will one day turn into a magnificent beast and your roar can be heard by the entire forest.”

“Really? Wow! That’s great” said the cub resting now against his mother’s paw.

Suddenly, they hear a low hum in the distance. They both twitch their ears towards the sound which now is no more evident. Relaxed, the mom starts licking the cub on its head.

“Hehehe! That itches”

A long spear out of nowhere flies swiftly through the air and pierces the mother tiger through her front leg.

“Roaarrrrrrrrr. Son! Run son! Run!”

“Mom. What happened? Who are they? Mom. What happened to your leg?” cried out the cub in fear, sticking to its mother.

“Run. Son . Run. Please go away!”

Another spear just misses the cub and pierces his mother right in the ribs. “Roaaarrrrrr. Son, listen to me, go, run, hide.”

Terrified, the cub runs as fast as it can and hides among the bushes. He sees a group of dark skinned humans approach his now immobile mother. One of them stamps hard on the face and laughs. He picks up a stick in his hand and gives heavy blows to the head. The cub can hear his mom’s roar becoming less loud while he watches in astonishment and tremendous fear. They then put a rope  around her neck and drag her along in to the darkness.

He knew they had killed her. Crying, he kept running in the opposite direction till he could run no more. A flood of thoughts filled his mind. Who are they? Why did they kill her? Where are they taking her? His little roar was hardly audible 10 feet away. But he wanted to cry, he wanted to roar. Roar so hard that he could roar no more.

10 years passed. He had the roar that his mom had promised he would get. He was magnificent. He was strong. He was feared by all the other animals. He hunted.

But he feared THEM. The humans who had killed his mother. The humans who might kill him too and several others of his own. He will never forget the day when his mom was hunted. He will never get answers to the questions he has.

An animal that is feared by all the others in the forest succumbs to the fear of HUMANS and fights for its life every day.

Mankind’s macho, mean-spirited, venal and tawdry destruction of tigers in the wild demonstrates that we are tragically failing as stewards of the Earth.  We are now its destroyers.   More than any other animal, tigers symbolize Nature‘s beauty, majesty and strength. They epitomize Nature outside our control. They teach us humility and help control our tendency to slip into a dangerous Hubris.  Think how barren our world will be when there are no more tigers.

P.S. Help save the majestic tiger. Join the roar at http://www.saveourtigers.com