To paraphrase Chaucer, this news "slayed me suddenly." Grizzly bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Killing an "Endangered Species" can result in a $50,000.00 fine and a year in prison. New Seminole justice is harsher: death by the same means.
Although there aren't any majestic grizzlies in the Everglades, the smaller Florida Black Bear is doing its best to hang on. Unfortunately, the Outside is making that all but impossible. Nearly 20 acres of wildlife habitat are lost to new development every hour in Florida. Roadkill is the number one cause of bear death in the state (over 100 bears are killed on Florida roadways each year).
This is why we fight for Gaia-loving species everywhere.
This is why my fight is more personal: Nokosee, my husband, the father of my child, and my lover-to-die-for's name means "Bear" in the Seminole language. So when I see Nokosee or just think about him, I think of the bears out there trying to hang on against a world that is for the most part indifferent to them. Or like us, the New Seminole, a world-- the Outside-- that wants to kill them.
All of us are endangered species. The Gaia and the Inside has us to fight for them. Who or what is looking out for you?