https://www.grizzlytimes.org/single-post/60-minutes-toothy-porn

by Louisa Willcox

Our relationship with wildlife has thankfully evolved since 80 AD when during a single day 50,000 cheering fans packed the Roman Coliseum to witness the slaughter of over 5,000 animals — including bears. Or since Elizabethan times when blindfolded chained bears were pitted against mastiffs to entertain blood-thirsty drunken crowds. Or since bounty hunters and well-armed settlers in the American West killed every wolf, bear, and cougar they could find in the name of Manifest Destiny.

Our treatment of animals has surely become more enlightened. We have banned wanton abuse of animals and curbed killing of wildlife. We have also learned a lot about the critical role that large carnivores play in the web of life and our national psyche. Our collective grief over the extirpation of many species fueled the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that codifies a national moral commitment to…