Art Influencing Life
– – J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have popularized owls, which is a bad thing to the extent that fans of the young wizard and his owl Hedwig have been buying endangered owls from illegal bird traders!
This has been a problem in such countries as India, where the environment minister revealed that a recent report details that nearly half of India’s 30 species of owls can be found on sale at markets. In addition to their Harry Potter appeal, people also buy the owls for medicinal purposes and for sacrifice in some Hindu festivals.
In the Harry Potter novels, owls are used as a form of communication, carrying important messages…
Tags: the owl and Harry Potter
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FOXSYLVANIA 
November 6, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Thank goodness no wanted pet black bears after seeing THOSE CALLOWAYS in 1965!
The latter was a Walt Disney movie I just saw earlier today. Set in pre-WWII Vermont, it depicted a rural farm family trying to save enough money (albeit, from fur trapping) to buy a certain lake for use as a sanctuary for migrating Canadian geese. Brian Keith played the father, Cameron “Cam” Calloway, who had been raised by the MicMac Indian tribe (for whom the Canadian goose is a totem). And, one of his family’s pet “critters” was a half-grown black bear named Keg!*
Now, while politically incorrect by some of today’s standards, one should never-the-less mentally applaud it for being so far ahead of its time, with regard to being so pro-waterfowl conservation.
*As in, “bear keg?” 😉
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November 7, 2010 at 1:14 am
What a paradox, though…promoting conservation (good) by fur trapping(bad)!
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November 7, 2010 at 2:27 am
The late, great science fiction author, Poul Anderson, was fond of putting similar moral paradoxes into his futuristic works. As in; Good Guys aren’t entirely heroic and Bad Guys aren’t entirely villainous.
I believe the Chinese simply called that Yin/Yang.
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November 6, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Oops! That first sentence should’ve read “…nobody wanted black bears…” 😦
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