I heard a very well-meaning animal rights activist tirade about how brutal and inhumane people are and that we can learn a lot from the kindness of animals. Sort of a Blanche Dubois take on society.

I asked her what she thought about the recent report of two chimpanzees at a national zoo that were part of a “teenage gang” as the zoo keepers described it. They terrorize the other chimps and one day, ripped a baby chimp from her mom’s arms and stomped her to death.

Without missing a beat, she explained this act by saying that animals will kill each other if their territory is threatened, or they don’t have food, or they don’t like another animal, or are hungry or they voted wrong in the last election. The list was quite long . . . and I agreed with every point on it. But what were humans supposed to learn from this again? That the ends justifies the means? Or that if they behave a lot more like animals than the world would be better place for all of us?

I guess we should be thankful that at least humans don’t eat each other.

This is Nina May for the Renaissance Women at ninamay.com.