Horses are herbivores. Sometimes, something goes wrong. When there isn't enough plant matter to satisfy large herbivores on the death-world Earth, or when micro-nutrients such as calcium are lacking, they will actively kill and consume other animals. Giraffes have been known to gnaw bones, horses to eat young birds (deer do this as well), and hippos will sometimes kill (and take a bite out of) predators foolish enough to attack them. -- Anon Guest
[AN: I imagine this would come as something more than a shock to "naturally herbivorous lifestyle" vegans]
The Human capacity to plough forwards in ignorance knows no bounds. When faced with contradictory evidence, some have been known to adulterate it to suit their own narrative. This has lead to scrubbing paint from excavated marble, the destruction of several archeological sites, and hoaxes like the Piltdown Man being accepted into the evolution narrative for decades on end. Lately, it's resulted in the Plant Life Colony Bubble.
It's not what it seems to be by its name. It's a miniature world made with care and attention to detail by vegans who believed, wholeheartedly, that it was entirely possible to live without any creature within it eating meat. That included not eating insects and not using bees, because animal exploitation was wrong. It was then, and is now, a canned wilderness. The only difference is that now, no Humans live in it.
They thought of everything, or so they believed. They had an artificial environment in which they controlled everything that went in. From the microbiota in the soils and water, to the ecology they imported to live within. Plants first, because they were the keystone of what they were trying to build. Butterflies to pollinate the plants, so that nobody would be tempted to exploit honey. Herbivores for the wildlife, because it would be a lonely world without animals in it. They would be protected by the PLCB. Not kept as pets, but allowed to roam wild and free like they were meant to.
The first failure came when the natural herbivores ate the food crops that the Humans were trying to cultivate. Fences were an imposition on the animals and therefore a form of exploitation. So were doors. The vegan colonisers soon realised that the animals they cherished also preferred the calorie-rich foods that their Human caretakers did. They did not naturally stay in the wild. They did not naturally share with the Humans who refused to shoo them away because that, too, was animal exploitation.
The solution to prevent Human starvation was to grow food crops in a hydroponic facility that was through an airlock and therefore keeping the animals safe from the factory conditions therein.
The second failure came with the realisation that predators exist for a reason. The herbivores, with no opposition and plenty of food, were fruitful and multiplied. They were everywhere. Eating and breeding until they almost ate the entire environment bare.
If it weren't for the Humans feeding them, they would have starved before the third failure became evident.
Lilly was scattering carrot pieces and shredded cabbage leaves around when she saw it. The bunnies were happy, and one of the deer entered the expanding clearing to graze on a few mouthfuls of her offerings. Then, in a moment like magic, the deer leaned down to sniff a baby bunny.
It was adorable.
Right up until the instant the deer opened its mouth and ate the baby bunny.
Even herbivores will predate on other creatures if they don't have enough nutrition available. They had made a herbivorous paradise with everything but some key elements and now the animals were seeking what they needed from what they had to hand.
It was -to the Humans- horrific. This was something they still believed they could fix. They could make paradise.
The final straw was footage of a family of squirrels eating the baby birds and eggs out of a nest in someone's yard. Even the smallest of them were seeking nutrients from what was there.
They approved the introduction of bears, and retreated to the food factory section to turn their backs on the resulting carnage.
The Bubble's a wilderness, now. The bones of the colonists' homes have become part of the environment. Cockroaches -impossible to keep out- have evolved to predate on the butterflies. The deer eat the bunnies and the bears eat the deer. An ecology eventually formed out of the things they had put in there to create a paradise of their own imaginations.
The lesson of the Bubble is taught everywhere, now. Places like the Bubble are unethical for multiple reasons, including that the goal in its premise is unachievable. The lesson to remember is, Nature doesn't care about your morals.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Gratomlin]
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