Oil Spills and Pelicans

There are not a lot of things that I am grateful for in my life, unfortunately, especially when it comes to members of the human race and their wrongdoings. But with every mistake, lessons are learned, and this is the case with major oil spills such as that of BP's on the 18th of October, two years ago.

More than two-hundred million gallons of unrefined oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over a course of eighty-seven days, affecting sixteen-thousand miles of coastline, killing over eight-thousand animals in a span of just six months. A big commotion happened, people swore never to buy petrol from BP again, the media had things to over-exaggerate and I had another reason to hate the world, as did many other animal-rights activists, while in the meantime slaughterhouses were and still are operating in the background.

Two years later, people are purchasing petrol from BP again, nobody has brought up the massive oil spill and some of the affected pelicans have recovered - yes, recovered. How? Well, with the help of some amazing individuals, too heartfelt about the situation at hand to not care.

A couple of hours ago, I came home and decided to have an early dinner and watch some television in the meantime. There was nothing interesting on, except for a documentary on SBS and I thought that that would be enough to satisfy me in terms of my daily dose of television. I cannot recall its name, but I can recall what was shown: a pelican cleaning operation at Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Louisiana. These people have dedicated a fraction of their lives to save pelicans enveloped in oil from BP's oil spill, and have treated these pelicans enough to self-eat, made sure that they are capable of surviving in the wild again, and have released them. A similar documentary to the one I watched is HBO's Saving Pelican #895.

And almost immediately, mid-chewing a Lebanese Cheese pizza, my faith in some aspects of humanity was restored. I felt as much joy as a clean pelican being released from that rehabilitation centre. I felt as though humans were all responsible creatures who had the ability to empathise for other beings that they, in one oil spill or another, hurt. This toxic waste, for the sake of money, killed so many pelicans who in attempting to preen themselves died from the virulent toxins found in the oil, or simply drowned in it. And while BP paid its due of forty-billion dollars in court, these volunteers paid the due for all of humanity to these animals, showering them with water and love, and making sure they have regained the ability to fend for themselves again.

Over thirty-thousand additional people volunteered to assist in the cleaning of the Gulf when the oil spilled, too, which was not spoken about to the extent that it needed to be at the time for me to have known that for a fact rather than having to read about it now, two years later. These unnamed and unacknowledged people are people who we need more of on this planet. We need to assist these wonderful beings in the absence of Mother Nature. We need to give animals the care and respect that they need in situations of our causing. We need to treat animals the way we want to be treated if we were voiceless.

You do not need to be an animal-rights activist to care that thanks to these people, we have saved eight-hundred and ninety-five pelicans that would otherwise have died from our hands - you just need a heart.






References:

11 Facts about the BP Oil Spill

HBO Oil Spill Documentary Article