I sit at a desk, studying for a class I never wanted to take. I am concentrating on deciphering yet another passage when it happens again. I hear a fly buzz past my ear. This fly has been harrying me all evening. Be it by buzzing startlingly, landing on me, or landing on my food. I swat at the fly, curse it, and continue my work. Soon, it begins to buzz again. This time, it buzzes right up to the desk and lands. It begins to rub its front legs together the way flies do. I raise my book to put it out of my misery. But then I pause.
Should I kill this fly? Its only crime has been to mildly inconvenience me. Who am I to hand out such a punishment for such a crime? It never even tried to annoy me; its very nature is what bugs me. Can I kill a creature because it unintentionally annoys me? Is its relative insignificance justification enough for this act? Should I kill a mouse for the same offense? What about a cat? A dog? A man?
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During my moment of hesitation and contemplation, the fly buzzed off, never to bother me again. Maybe it got the message.
Wow, now I feel guilty. All my life I've been killing flies in many ways, quick and painless, trapping and stabbing to death, even burning flies into oblivion. I think my brain is bleeding now.
Personally I don't think killing a fly is a major offense. They are annoying (which isn't really justification) and they are dirt and gross. The fact is I don't like flies and I will continue to kill them when they violate my personal air space and contaminate my my ham sandwich with their little fly feet and thier vomity digestive process. I take no joy in the killing and I do feel a pang of guilt for ending a life even if it's a small one.
theres billions of flies mosquitos and stuff like that out there they carry deases and make you hurt. If a mosquito got the chance it would't think twice before sucking you're blood. If that fly were human it would have been charged for tresspassing and stealing. Why do we give flies more sympathie than humans? Other animals (bigger ones) would eat you for going into there territory and stealing there food (that means its not a good idea to jump into a lion cage at the zoo). It's human nature to be protective of territory, even if you did let that fly live it probably has less than a week to live anyway!!!
