“Animals, which were in the service of man, could be arrested, tried, convicted and executed,” according to Edmund P. Evans in his book The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, published in 1906. They could also be excommunicated from the church.Our relationship to our pets and wildlife has mellowed over the centuries, but we still can’t figure out how to share space and food with the wildlife that lives among us without conflict, especially when resources get tight.We can’t translocate, trap, tase, laser, bomb, and euthanize our way toward a good solution. And aren’t we part of the problem? So, how do we coexist when humans make all the rules?

GUESTS:

Mary Roach: The author, most recently, of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
Ben Kilham: Founder of the Kilham Bear Center in New Hampshire and the author of two books, Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild and In the Company of Bears

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Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 20, 2021.

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The best laid schemes of mice and men: human and wildlife conflict