If the term “poisoned toad-flesh sausages” piques your interest, then Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains is the book for you! Each chapter is named for a group of animals humans have labeled as a bother – a plague of rats, a slither of snakes, a nuisance of cats, etc. – and author Bethany Brookshire digs into each particular animal’s history as a “pest” with expert research and lighthearted humor.
The author takes us from her very own backyard, where we meet the tomato-eating squirrel in her garden (his name is Kevin), on a journey around the world. In the first chapter, we visit the Karni Mata Temple in India, home to approximately 25,000 rats, which are viewed as sacred by temple devotees and receive daily offerings of milk, fruit, and bread. Then it’s on to New York City for a “rat safari,” where rats are seen as a disease-carrying problem to be managed. The same rat is venerated in one space and vilified in another.
We travel to Kenya, where elephants steal crops, flatten homes, and even take lives. In response, the Kenyan people have developed innovative ways to coexist with the elephants, including building fences with bee hives. Tip of the day: elephants are scared of bees!
Brookshire explores human-wildlife conflict with pigeons, sparrows, coyotes, deer, bears, rabbits, cane toads, and more. It’s a fascinating look at why modern humans love some animals and loathe others. The rarer an animal is, the more positive press and human interest it receives. It’s rare, it’s beautiful, and, most crucially, it’s usually far away. The more common an animal is and the more it intrudes on our human environment, the more likely it is to be viewed as a pest.
In the end, what we learn, of course, is that there is no such thing as a pest. There are merely animals that are thriving in areas we think of as human spaces, and it’s all down to our perception of a species. We appreciate wild animals – but we want them to stay in the wilderness. Pick up Pests for an interesting and thought-provoking read.
