Thank you for whomever put the ad in the last Beachcomber reminding us to “Slow down spring newborn” with the drawing of the fawn.

I know there are different opinions about wildlife on the island. Just days ago I heard my neighbor shooting six to eight times; he said he was shooting at a raccoon. “I’m a bad shot,” he remarked. I heard a whimper of an animal in the bushes. Last year I called another neighbor late at night after hearing multiple shots. I was told raccoons were being shot. It’s disturbing to hear gunfire close to home. I can’t ignore it and feel myself wounded to know that people whose chickens and gardens are closed up tight still feel the need to kill life.

For many people, animals are either pets, a nuisance, entertainment, property or dinner — and all easily disposed of. Yet there also are many who believe that animals are beings in their own right and deserve to be allowed to live undisturbed.

Last month in New York City an attorney brought a groundbreaking trial to court to defend the rights of two primates who are being held in cages and used in experiments. The results are as yet undetermined. See the website nonhumanrightsproject.org. Interesting. Many believe it’s our future — more kindness.

Most of us have seen deer dead on the road. I have seen a dead fawn and a dead new mother deer full of milk. Broken bonds. See some tender pictures of this bond at onegreenplanet.org/news/baby-koala-hugs-mom-during-surgery posted on June 11.

As the website says, “Of all the medicine in the world, love is possibly the best of all.”

— Jo Ann Herbert