shapeshifter haven

I see so many posts using deer as the victim and wolves as predators and perpetrators and not only do i think that does wolves a huge disservice I think it also does deer a huge disservice as well because deer are not somehow completely helpless and at will to nature, and without wolves or other apex predators to manage population deer are PROLIFIC and start easily becoming unmanageable and taking over wildlife, that's WHY we reintroduced wolves to yellowstone after we caused them to go extinct in the united states.

Deer are very sturdy animals and are masters of their own survival and I don't feel like we give them enough credit by watering them down to helpless animals that are completely at will to wolves or other predators.

Not only that but the stigma about wolves and especially in media really does impact wolves and how the general public sees them and that also affects legislation, endangered species acts, and also increases animal cruelty against wolves and similar species. Leading to wolves and red wolves especially, dying out. And with more anti wolf legislation and trying to take them off the endangered species list they are even less protected.

and thats my main issue with it being such a common trope to use. People see wolves as synonymous with evil or abuse or something similar and have a lack of empathy and understanding of apex predators and how they live, and that leads to more and more wolves dying and less and less legislation to protect them. Even with human hunters we could not keep deer populations down without wolves, and wolves have been shown to have a genetic predisposition to be more fearful of humans because of how humans have interacted wolves over generations (the exception is wolf packs specifically in the arctic that have gotten such low exposure to people that they are curious/interact with/around humans), they don't attack people. 

and that's not to say that individual artists who have made media depicting wolves in this way are horrible and evil because that would be a huge huge generalization and jump, but I would just like to ask that people consider this and think about this before using this trope and if you still decide to use it as a trope all the power to you just please remember that real wolves are not evil, and are not out to get anyone or anything specifically they are just trying to live and thrive like everything else on this planet.

But I know this sounds like a super chronically online take, and there's many shows/movies i like that fall into making wolves "evil" so im not even against it as a trope fully,

but it genuinely means so much to me that people who don't know get educated especially with how few red wolves we have left, how the US government keeps removing protections on wolves leading to them dying off, and the increase of hunters especially going out of their way to hurt and torture wolves (nothing against ethical hunters btw, all the power to you). A lot of people that i've talked to about this topic in person had no idea that a lot of the things they were taught about wolves were wrong, and being able to explain that and correct misinformation about wolves is very important to me.

Year of the horse

As someone who is fully and completely nonhuman on every level, you have to care about alterhumans who are still human to some extent.

And attributing the things terrible people have done to innate flaws of humanity itself is to absolve them of responsibility. It is not "human nature," it's not anything about humanity whatsoever, it's choices those people made that hurt the world.

Plus self identified "misanthropic alterhumans" have a tendency to ignore their own role in perpetuating systemic biases. You think because you're not a human you're above humanity, that you can't possibly be a bigoted shithead. News flash: misanthropy is bigotry.

Stop using your trauma as an excuse to be bigoted.

I know what’s like to feel the pain and frustration of seeing humans hurt your kind, both as a human and a nonhuman myself. To reiterate: when are you going to stop and think about the SYSTEMIC issues tied to that pain instead of taking the easy way out by blaming and hating an entire species for existing?

I am Black. I have my own track record of trauma involving white humans. I spent all my whole life in the Southeast U.S. where this is no shortage of white republicans, itching to peddle their racist rhetoric. I was made a target of racism by a white human boy in the first grade. Yet, I’m also aware that it had nothing to do with his species. It has everything to do with the privileges many white people have been allotted in my country and the constructs they’ve either been taught or have adopted into their world view against marginalized communities like mine. I recognize that they alone aren’t the only arbiters of racism, let alone antiblack racism. Racism is systemic.

Day in and day out, I’m sick at the thought of human farmers and agriculturalists poisoning my species (vultures) because they deem us as “pests” when we have just as much of a right to live as they do. Not to mention these poisonings have led to many of my kind’s endangerment and potential extinction. Yet, I also know that there’s plenty of human conservationists busting their asses to save us, reverse the damage that has been done against our populations and educate rural communities on the ecological effects of these poisonings. Abuses against wildlife is systemic.

And before I’m hit with the “These problems wouldn’t exist in this first place if it weren’t for humans!” card, remember that the root of your frustration are societal infrastructures, not the existence of a species. Nobody is exempt of bigotry, not even the most marginalized person you can think of. It’s called having bias, and that bias can always be weaponized against someone or isolate you from the world around you. Some of you KNOWINGLY exude privilege over some demographics of humans while feigning your “right” to be misanthropic. Humans are still your peers— your communities— at the end of the day. We all share this fucking planet, and it’s going to take anything but hate to heal it.

It’s already frustrating that so many nonhumans treat alterhumanity as synonymous with nonhumanity and center that experience over others when addressing the community collectively. I have no tolerance for nonhumans who expect to be given a slap on the wrist for their behavior because whatever history they have, meanwhile alterhumans like myself and fully human alterhumans as well are expected to quietly accept LET ALONE SYMPATHIZE with this behavior. If not that, we’re forgotten completely, so folks act as if their behavior affects no one.

Your trauma holds weight. I get that.

At the same time:

I exist. We exist. You don’t get a pass to be misanthropic in alterhuman spaces simply because you are nonhuman, in community with a lot of nonhumans and/or have a bad history with humans.

Humans exist in this community too, and even if they didn’t, it’s not acceptable to dismiss an entire species as ontologically evil or harmful.

horse therians what colour are u

This is what I have for now. I ordered it by species, tho as you can see most of them are wolves. I'm still not done. This is mostly for me anyway, I like to categorize information. If you would like to be add in this, feel free to send me a dm or an ask!