John Sorenson, chair of Sociology, published an opinion piece in numerous Canwest papers across Canada about the Year of the Tiger and its irony in light of the injustices done to the animal. Appearances included the Hamilton Spectator and the Edmonton Journal.
An excerpt:
As the Chinese calendar prepares to welcome the Year of the Tiger next month, it won’t be much of a party for the animals themselves. If anything, the occasion may simply push them closer to extinction.
Tigers are charismatic creatures that fire our imagination. William Blake used the image of the “tyger, tyger burning bright” to pose fundamental questions about creativity and morality. In 2004, Animal Planet surveyed 50,000 people in 73 countries and found the tiger was “the world’s favourite animal.”
Indigenous societies considered tigers to be spirits or deities, legends depicting them taking human form.In Asia the tiger is the “king of beasts,” and political leaders attribute to themselves the strength and power of these impressive animals. The tiger is the “national animal” of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea and South Korea, and is the emblem of Sri Lankan separatists.
As a powerful carnivore, the tiger is used to symbolize bravery and valorize war. Advertisers enlist tigers to sell us everything from gasoline to sports teams and breakfast cereal.
Despite such tribute, tigers have not fared well at our hands. Having evolved over millions of years, tigers once ranged from Mesopotamia, Caucasia and Siberia, across Asia to Indonesia, but were eliminated from much of this territory.
Tigers are solitary and elusive, so counting them is difficult. More than 100,000 were believed to live in the wild in the early 20th century. Now, only a few thousand remain, all under serious threat and classified as critically endangered.
