The Rabbit- a connection to environmentalism

     I as some of you know, am an avid hunter. I love to be in the woods and interact with animals. I love calling  them and  they in turn call back. As  I was sitting at home enjoying a wonderful meal of mixed greens,and salmon, my dog was seen in the back yard killing a small rabbit. So naturally at the behest of my mother I had to go retrieve the poor animal from the dog. As I walked up to my dog she knelt down and looked up for approval almost saying "look what I did, aren't you proud of me?" I gingerly picked up the rabbit as it looked back at me with terrified eyes not knowing what to do. I often don't have a problem with things of that nature,but something was different this time.There is an unspoken tenderness each of us have toward small helpless things of this world. As the great care giver of nature Francis of Assisi  said "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." Nature is precious and fragile,it is helpless. So we have a responsibility to look out for it.