U.S. military to air drop toxic mice on snakes in Guam

[DS Star]

Online article from http://www.breitbart.com reported that:

"The U.S. military plans to air drop tens of thousands of dead mice laced with acetaminophen (Tylenol) onto foliage surrounding Andersen Air Force Base, in order to control the population of the brown tree snake. Acetaminophen is harmless to humans but toxic to the brown tree snake.

The snakes are natives of Australia, and came to Guam on board military boats after WW II. The native bird population is defenseless against the snake and has wiped out almost all of Guam's native birds, making most of the species extinct.

The dead mice will be fitted with tiny parachutes, so they'll catch on trees to make them more attractive to the snakes. The fear is that a similar infestation of brown tree snakes to Hawaii would cause over $2 billion in damage per year.

 The new mouse drop follows a pilot experiment in 2010 that worked well. However, activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) are expressing outrage that snakes will suffer, though hopefully the snakes at least won't get headaches. "

This is actually a warfare between snakes (brown tree snakes) and human. Though this non-native snakes had become a menace to the local habitats, especially the native birds species, for the military to take such a grand scale of extermination was actually due to the following concerns:

1. The 2 millions snakes population is threatening the tourism industry of Guam.
Guam is an US territory that relied heavily on its tourism industry to support its economy. This snakes menace will scare away their potential tourists as the size of the snake can grew up to 3 meters. Though its venom is not lethal to adult humans, it is dangerous to children;

2. Preventing invasion of brown tree snakes into Hawaii.
Though Hawaii is about 3,000 miles away from Guam, with the frequent travelling of aircraft from the military bases, US government is worried that these brown tree snakes will make a similar invasion into another US's world-famous tourists destination, Hawaii.

Now, this is the issue of survival for the snakes and for "the ten of thousands" mice as well...

As Buddhists, how do we solve this kind of problem when there is a clash between the survival of humans and the animals?

[sonamdhargey]

Let's look deeper. Everything happened for a reason. It has an origin of an action that causes the said situation. Now the effects of the past actions of whatever that some human did is manefesting. The foreign snakes are wiping out the population of some native birds caused by human itself who brought the snakes to that particular state which has adverse effect on the bird's population. Some species wiped out from the planet and new species also appear. Some species evolved to survive some don't. Somethings can't be solved. Sometimes it should be left the way it is and let Karma take it's course.

[Benny]

I have watched the documentary before , it seems like a very serious ecological or environmental disaster to have millions of non native invasive species predating on the entire local species of fauna . What is worst is that the alien snakes are also a threat to human safety when they get caught in plane engines and propellers , not to mention short circuiting the power supply and telephone cables causing disruptions to life saving emergency services that saves lives .

To me this warrants the necessary action to remove the threat to both human and animal life on the island. However , from the Buddhist perspective , necessary pujas should be performed to appease the souls of the snakes by dedicating merits to them to have a better rebirth elsewhere . 

[dondrup]

Being the dominant species on Earth, humans make their own rules and requirements on how things should be.  It is not how things should have been according to the law of nature.  Because of the danger that these snakes pose to human lives at Guam, the U.S. military decided to kill the snakes.  Because humans want to protect their own interest i. e. the tourism industry of Guam, they decide to kill the snakes. Because of the fear of these snakes encroaching into Hawaii, the snakes are to be killed.  We can see that the humans are selfish and care only their survival at the expense of killing the snakes!

As killing is heavy negative karma, Buddhists will not advocate killing the snakes.  However, humans lives are at stake too if the snakes are not killed.   Hence, killing are involved in either case. Pujas are usually recommended to be performed to appease the snakes and to dedicate merits to them before the snakes are terminated.

[fruven]

The snakes doesn't just appear out of nowhere and appear in Guam. As pointed in the article it came on board a human-made military boats. Now we are fearing that the snake will also go over to Hawaii. Very funny indeed, the snake is the problem, not the military aircraft. How would the snake board into the aircraft? I would think that military has more tighter security than a civilian aircraft. A non-military would not easily board an military aircraft. Why the snake can escape such security? In other words the snake is 'superior' than human? One can say the security is made for human and is not for animals. Now they want to 'secure' Hawaii from the snake and claim back Guam from the snake. Looks like we are losing the battle over these external phenomena, the snakes' population, the weather, and etc.

[Jessie Fong]

How the snakes found their way to Guam is not important anymore in this case. Faced with a situation threatening the human race, it is only natural that the survival instinct takes over to remove the threat.

Snakes are part and parcel of the food chain. Preventive measures were not put into place to curb their increase in numbers. Now that it had escalated to this alarming situation, their solution is to remove the cause - thus kill the snakes.

Yes as Buddhists we can perform pujas for the snakes before we end their lives.