Baby otters

“I think it (hunting) always was abnormal behavior. It was the fullest expression of the commodification of nature.” — John Livingston (1923-2006)

This column is a resource for people interested in rescuing wildlife as our brothers and sisters — and in the living earth surviving intact for its own sake. It is a challenge to conservationists. Today it focuses on the wisdom of John A. Livingston.

Livingston, who died in 2006, served as executive director of Canadian Audubon in the 1950s, left to produce “The Nature of Things” for CBC television in 1962-1968, then taught ecology at York University. This column consists primarily of excerpts from Farley Mowat’s 1990 interview with Livingston, which is included in “The John A. Livingston Reader,” published in 2007. The reader also includes “The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation,” originally published in 1981, and “One Cosmic Instant: A Natural History of Human Arrogance,” first…