yeah. you know, here's the thing: lions eat people, too. quite a few of them. not when their "natural diet" is low; humans are a component of a lion's "natural diet". some theories even suggest it's part of the reason why we humans got so s-m-r-t. they'll come right into the village, grab a human and start munching, alright? estimates are around a thousand human deaths a year due to lion predation. they're above us on the food chain in the regions they inhabit.

now, if you saw a lion munching on a human, would you say "ah, whatever, it's nature. lion's gotta eat."? well, you might if you're some twisted hobbesian psychopath. but, you're probably not. you'll probably react with a healthy amount of empathy and say "noooo! not the human!".

so, why is it different with an elephant?

i'm not denying the premise. it's true: a lion's gotta eat, and it's gonna eat what it can, including you, if you're around. but, there's no rule that says we need to have lions.

now, stop and mentally define the word monster. would you not agree that a lion perfectly fits the definition of a monster? they're horrific creatures, really.

elephants are very smart creatures that demonstrate a range of emotions and cognitive abilities that in some ways exceeds our own. as far as we know, an elephant can't find the root of a polynomial equation (or prove it can't be found using any brilliant methods developed or not developed by french revolutionaries dabbling in group theory), but most humans can't do that, either. we do know that elephants have far superior memory skills to our own. the reality is that the depth of their cognitive abilities is still being studied, and may yield some rather shocking (to some people) surprises.

in short, an elephant deserves your empathy just as much as a human does. at various phases in our existence, we've banded together to chase off predators that pose a threat to us. we've driven some of them to extinction - and that's natural. if it's them or us, and it generally is when we're talking about predators that eat us, i'd rather it be them.

so, i think it's worth asking whether or not it's worthwhile to stand in solidarity with the elephants to drive the lions to extinction. i'm not saying we should, exactly, i'm wondering if we should. do we have a moral case for it, considering elephant intelligence? and do we really need a world with monsters in it?