Occupied Territory

Iraq, Eritrea, Chechnya, Cote D�Ivoire, Darfur, Palestine, Rwanda, Lebanon, Namibia, Zaire and other occupied territories are nothing compared to the global occupation by humans. The occupation of the non-human animals� homes.

The foundation of many nations is bound with a massacre of another one. The foundation of every nation is bound with a massacre of non-human animals. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the non-human animals massacre is never mentioned.

There is no such thing as "no man�s land". Even that term is outstandingly speciesist. Animals live everywhere. For them the whole world is an occupied territory.

Humans possess any possible area without even realizing that their uncontrolled spreading destroys non-humans� habitats. As far as they go, everything is theirs.
An unconntrolled expansion in a limited area is the behavior of cancer.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, today�s average home size in the United States is 2,200 square feet, up from 1,400 square feet in 1970.
Humans are so indifferent and so speciesist, they are not even aware of the fact that four or five of them live in a space once inhabited hundreds of creatures that were destroyed in one way or another in order to provide them their huge and comfortable houses. They have their own parking space, warehouse, backyard, front yard and all that without even a second of thought of all the animals that were hurt. Humans don�t even try to manage in as small as possible area, in order not to cause so much suffer.

HUMANS' OCCUPATION MANIFESTATIONS

It is much cheaper for humans to dump their waste into the ocean. Nearly everything eventually ends up in the ocean. The ocean is the world�s waste dump.

Environmental litter from both natural and artificial waste, such as sewage sludge, mining tailings, fly ash from power stations, dredged spoils from harbors and estuaries, dangerous man-made organic compounds used for pesticides, weapons and industrial uses, as well as packaged goods - makes its way to the sea floor over time.
At depth of more than 3,000 meter, the deep-sea floor may seem safe from the human-made hazards that threaten terrestrial and coastal ocean environments. The currents of the ocean transport pollutants into the remotest corners of the world. No place in the ocean is immune to the destructiveness of humanity.

The most toxic waste material dumped into the ocean includes dredged material, industrial waste, sewage sludge, and radioactive waste. Driving a car or heating a house, can leak 28 million gallons of oil into lakes, streams and rivers. The hunt for petroleum through offshore gas and oil drilling, leaks extremely dangerous toxins into the ocean. Fertilizers and pesticides from factory farms permeate into the ground after a rain and then stream into rivers and ultimately into the ocean.

When these materials find their way into the ocean, marine organisms suffer toxic effects. Ocean dumping can destroy entire habitats and ecosystems when excess sediment builds up and toxins are released. Toxic chemicals, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) and DDT, for instance, have turned up in the fatty tissues and blubber of seals in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic, thousands of kilometers from population centers. Such high levels of PCBs found in beluga whales blubber that under Canadian law they qualify as "toxic waste dumps".

Nearly 10 billion acres of forest cover the earth's surface, almost a third of the earth's land surface excluding Antarctica and Greenland. The world's forests have shrunk by some 40% since agriculture began 11,000 years ago. Three quarters of this loss occurred in the last two centuries as land was cleared to make way for farms and to meet demand for wood. Over the last five years, the world suffered a net loss of some 91 million acres of forest.

Every year about 32 million acres of forest are lost due to deforestation, 2.47 acres of forests (2 football fields), every single second. That's equal to 78 million acres of felled trees every year. By the time you've finished reading this, 74 acres of rainforests and their millions of inhabitants, have been bulldozed, shriveled up in widely spread fires, or washed away in eroded soil.

Most forests are no longer in their original condition, having changed in composition and quality. Tropical and sub-tropical forests comprise 56% of the total amount of forested area, while temperate and boreal (northern) forests account for 44%. Primary forests with no visible signs of past or present human activity are destroyed at a rate of 15 million acres a year.

Only a mere 2% of Earth's surface is covered with rainforests.

1/3 of the earth�s land surface (10 billion acres) is threatened by desertification.
24 billion tons of fertile soil disappear annually. An average 7.3 million hectares were lost annually over the last five years.

Desertification is the degradation of land resulting from climatic variations and human activities mainly growing crops (over-cultivation exhausts the soil) and grazing animals that removes the vegetation cover that protects the land from erosion.

Humans are leading to destruction of tropical wet forests and tropical dry forests, due to widening practices of slash-and-burn and other methods of subsistence farming. A sequel to the deforestation is typically large scale erosion, loss of soil nutrients and sometimes total desertification.

Pressure from greater populations or decreases in rainfall can lead to the few plants present in arid and semi-arid areas to disappear. Because of the vegetation loss, desertification makes areas more flood-prone. It also causes the salt level in soil to rise, results in deteriorating quality of water, and silting of rivers, streams and reservoirs. The loss of plants also causes less moisture to be retained in the area, which may change the climate pattern leading to lower rainfall.

Human�s activity, primarily coal-burning and driving cars, release carbon dioxide and other air pollutions that are collected in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. The climatic changes caused by the global warming effect, force animals out of their habitats. It changes the timing of life patterns such as annual migration dates and it causes glacier retreat due to the increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere and oceans.

George w. bush said that �global warming needs more study�, but who needs study when you have proofs?

Animals and plants that are suited to cooler climates will need to move polewards or uphill when the climate becomes even just that little bit warmer. Fish in the North Sea have already been observed moving northwards.

Timing is everything, especially to migrating birds. Sea level rise is likely to threaten prime feeding and breeding grounds for millions of birds throughout the world, including mallards, red knots, pintails, plovers, warblers and orioles.

A giant glacier in Antarctica has shifted and is currently blocking the entrance to a major strait. Penguins in the area, now have to walk over 40 miles to get to their feeding grounds.

Seals suffer from lack of ice which they need for resting, molting and pup rearing.

Antarctica, areas of sea ice in this region have diminished significantly. And the algae that grows on the underside of the shrinking sea ice is therefore also diminishing. The algae is a food source of krill.

Florida alligators are sensitive to saltwater encroachment as sea level rises. As the salt water content of their habitat increases, they search farther inland for fresher water.

The golden toad was adapted to an environment that was almost always wet, but with growing periods of drought they became more susceptible to diseases and infections. The copper butterflies who were common near barcelona until recent decades, have moved 60 miles north, to a cooler place.

In Africa, elephants face changes in their natural habitat caused by global warming, including shrinking living space and more frequent and longer dry periods.

As long as penguins, seals, birds and fish are the victims, the rich countries won�t take any serious actions to decrease global warming. It is called richcentrism, manifested by a climatic occupation.

Around 15,000 crashes of airplanes into birds occur in the world every year.
Humans violently invade the sky and their solutions to the economical damage for the jet engines as a result of the crushes, are fireworks, cannons, guns and balloons, to scare away the birds. Humans don�t care that thousands of birds are burned inside the jet engines, it�s the jet that matters.
Most of the strikes occur during daytime hours, between July and October. Canceling the daytime flights during these months is not an option of course, but leashed dogs in the airport next to the takeoff area in order to run of the birds, is an �excellent� solution. So does falcons that humans bring to nest in airports. The ingenuity doesn�t stop there, as humans attach spikes on the airport signs, to make it harder for birds to flock.

Greater but much less known sky conquest, and one of the world's great bird killer, is glass. Around one billion birds die in glass collisions every year. Some birds are distracted by the buildings� bright lights at night and others are confused by their clear, reflective glass during the day.

Birds don�t change their migratory paths just because humans build cities like New York, Chicago and Toronto directly in migratory corridors, and the result is the greatest sky invasion. The corporate world wants the glass to look shiny and mirrored because that is a symbol of productivity and prosperity. Birds pay the price for this careless and violent trend in architecture that has become so popular.

Sea turtle eggs are laid in niches on the beach. When the sea turtles hatch, they are naturally drawn to the bright seaward horizon that guides them into the water. The sea horizon is brighter than the land horizon because the water reflects all heavenly light sources, such as the planets, stars and moonlight.

Artificial lights from the coastline, coming from marinas, hotels, restaurants, nearby apartments and from the street lights on walkways, confuse the hatchlings and they wander inland. Lost and disoriented, they soon die from dehydration, heat exhaustion or they are crushed by humans or cars.

Large structures such as shopping malls, building residence, sports fields and of course the lights from several thousand family homes also emit large amounts of light and act as light pollution in the inner city.

Tree trimming is another urban example of human�s occupation and anthropocentrism, as they cut down trees every once in a while with no consideration to the trees inhabitants (birds mostly but also worms, beetles, ants, squirrels etc).
For the sake of clean pavements, clean cars and of course clear view from their window, humans cut down trees and branches, exposing birds nests to predators or in the worst case cut the branches with the nest, leaving the nestlings on the ground or throw them into a near trash can to slowly die. Baby squirrels and birds are injured and orphaned by tree trimming and birds of passage lose their winter temporary residence in warm places.
The worst time to trim a tree is in the spring and early summer. Spring is the height of the nesting season for most birds and squirrels and also the time when a tree is directing all of its energy into producing new growth. Humans don�t find it very significant or relevant. "It is hard to see the stores� signs and the pavements are all dirty". Can�t blame them, after all� it is their world.

One of the most definite symbols of humans� alienation and domination, is the everyday use of their favorite assassin tool - their car.
When driving a car, humans are actually driving through the habitat of other creatures. Animals do not see the highway as off-limit. They cannot understand the concept of roads. The road is simply a cleared area of their living space.
They are sometimes even attracted to the asphalt pavement because it is worm, to scavenge the decaying flesh of other creatures who were flattened and splattered by some vehicle.

The humans� apathetic and pathetic solution - �drive carefully�, is so typical.
Just sweeping problems under the carpet. It is no more than another one of their harsh speciesist ideas. Would they accept people driving carefully through their backyard where their children are running around?

Driving a car is like entering a crowded forest and shooting a gun. At some point you are bound to hit someone. When humans kill non-human animals while driving they call it an accident. That means they didn�t plan it. If someone fired a gun in the woods, say, while target shooting, and some animal was shot and killed, he would call that an accident too. But knowing that someone could have been shot by the target practice makes that act violent and irresponsible. Humans certainly would not practice shooting in an area where children are playing, they would be arrested, and if they killed someone, they would be charged with manslaughter. The fact that it was an accident when a child was shot does not exempt them from the responsibility of killing him. The same thing goes for driving a car through other creatures� back yards. Some will die because of that, and humans know that.
To continue to drive despite this fact is vilonet and irresponsible, it is an act of aggression against animals just as much as commercially exploiting them.

Millions upon millions of animals are run over on highways every year. Humans kill more wild animals with their cars than with guns while hunting.

However, the damage that highways inflict on animals is not limited to direct hits.
It starts with the destruction and fragmentation of habitat, chemical and physical alteration of the surrounding environment and continues with the construction of the road itself, which causes loud noise, strong lights at night, pollution and stress.

The transportation system is enough of an inherent feature of our society to condemn our system as irrevocably abusive to non-humans.

Once roads are constructed, development often follows and continues to destruct habitats. But there�s more, the roads lead to building projects, whether they are new condominiums built on what had been an �undeveloped� hillside, or a huge shopping center constructed on what had been a �vacant� lot consisting of trees.

The habitat fragmentation confines wild populations to areas too small for their needs or forces animals to attempt road crossings to locate food, nesting sites, and mates. Due to the habitat fragmentation, species are forced to invade other species habitats, competing with them on the same resources.

How would you feel if someone came into your neighborhood and decided to bulldoze your home to build his home?

The second covert abuser for that matter is the oil industry. Most people are now aware of the environmental impact of oil drilling. Their concern, however, is usually directed at the economic impact of oil spills - will it damage commercial fish hatcheries, or wash up on beaches located in resort areas? Seldom is it considered that the homes of animals are being polluted, regardless of the economic significance of those homes to humans.

Each year there are dozens of oil spills.
Can you imagine how animals feel when they get covered with the sticky, smelly substance clumping their fur, stinging their eyes, and clogging their nostrils and mouth? It doesn�t take much empathy to imagine what these aquatic animals feel when their world is contaminated with oil. It doesn�t take a genius to realize that �accidents� will happen, and more oil spills will occur.

Oil is not the only energy source humans use. Nuclear reactors, which release low levels of radiation into the environment, damage local wildlife. The water used to cool nuclear generators is heated and then returned to its source, usually a river, raising the temperature of the surrounding ecosystem. When the ecosystem changes, animals who were dependent on the old conditions are destroyed. Studies point out that people living near nuclear reactors, are coming down with higher levels of leukemia and other cancers. What do you think happens to the millions of animals who don�t have the choice of living elsewhere?

Nuclear reactors are not alone in being hazardous to non-humans.
Hydroelectric plants employ dams which alter the entire ecosystem of huge expanses of land. Deserts become lakes and rivers downstream dry up to a trickle and consequently can only support a fraction of the beings that had come to rely on their life giving water. No discussion of the damage to nature and non-human animals by the energy production system would be complete without mentioning the burning of coal and its consequent production of acid rain. Lakes have become barren waters, and forests have become brown, lifeless rubble by the effects of acid rain. Where did the millions upon millions of animals who inhabited those lakes and forests go?

People don�t think about the effects of their energy consumption on non-human beings. They don�t want to realize that each time they turn on a light someone, somewhere suffers.

Causing suffer is inevitable, even for animal rights activists.
We are paying for animal research, financing the military, the predator control programs, the logging industry, price supports to grain farmers, the maintenance of public lands used by hunters, the building and maintenance of highways, financing oil drillings, paying the gas bill, financing electricity based on coal burning and many more animal abuses that are funded by taxes.

The world�s communities are not self-sufficient. Transportation is the life blood of the world economy. So even if you are a strict vegan, as long as you are part of this �driving society�, you�ll be responsible for suffer. Vegans are participating in the destructive distribution system that enabled the food to get to the market. It is inevitable. Someone �has� to drive your vegan food. By participating in this cruel system, we are simply letting someone else cause the suffer for us. There are no �100% cruelty free� products.

Becoming a vegan is by no doubt the primal step for suffer reducing, but even a vegan world won�t be enough. And unfortunately there will never be a vegan world.

Don�t get us wrong we are not saying you should isolate yourselves from society.
It is not the most efficient thing to do. It will hurt your activity.
We are into efficiency not purism.
Our point is that you can�t avoid suffer causing and that is not supposed to be your goal anyway. You should do what ever you can to find a way to stop all the suffer in the world.

All of you, we are sure, would have pushed the button that would destroy everything, in order to stop the madness.
But that�s just talking. Turn the talking into actions.

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