Teaching Kids Respect for All Life

After I read the front page today about the teens killing a mother duck, I was again reminded another reason why Tanglewood is important. Part of what we try and do is teach kids to respect life, ALL life. All living things have their "place" in the ecosystem and unnecessary killing is not only cruel but unintelligent. I often hear kids say "my Dad/Mom/Fill in the Blank kills snakes when they see them". I ask why and they have many answers, but most relate to fear. We fear what we don't understand. Snakes keep the rodent population down, some rodents carry disease. Snakes don't eat people. Some are venomous, but the venomous species we have in this area are very small in number and they are non-aggressive and won't go out of their way to stalk and attack a human. I can talk for a long time about the reasons people shouldn't kill snakes or spiders or other such "scary" animals for no apparent reason, but I know there will always be people glad to tell me horror stories to try and demonstrate why I am wrong. All I can do is smile and keep on teaching what I have learned from a lot of personal experience with wildlife; leave wildlife alone other than to enjoy it, and you will be just fine.