Brother Bear

Troy Moth photo

CBC video about this image here

The video is short, 1 minute long,

but haunting.

In the landfill,

the fires are burning,

flames flaring high.

The ground is smoldering,

as the food burns to char.

Brother Bear

is waiting

for the flames

to lessen,

so he can eat.

With decreased habitat, increasing scarcity of food, human encroachment, it is getting harder and harder for the wild creatures to live. The photographer saw this bear in a landfill in Ontario, waiting for the flames to die down, so he could eat the burning food. As he watched, the bear went down into the smoldering pit, looking for its dinner. This image haunts me. It is not just our home we have ruined; it is his, too. I remember a First Nations elder speaking of watching a mother bear and her two cubs walking across a clearcut, and how she cried, because it was so pitiful.