Once upon a time the human being used to live in small families, tribes or clans very similar to groups of apes. 40-50, at most 70, nomads who would live on hunting and harvesting. You can still find examples in Amazon, Papua and other countries all over the world.

Man was an integral part of the environment, there was no clear cut difference between man and the other animals. Between every group of animals there were well defined agreements based on respect. Each animal, included man, could live, eat, defend itself and procreate. Yet, killing for killing’s sake, exploitation and destruction were not part of any agreement and were not allowed at all.

Then man started to become more skilled in the manufacturing and use of instruments and the first settlement or semi-settlement of people were created inside quite large and cosy caves or near rivers in pile-dwellings.

Agriculture and craft were born and the first crowded villages were created. One hundred, two or even three hundred people.

And in this historical time a deal between man and some animal species was clinched. They gathered, they lived in symbiosis, they became friends, they made an agreement.

They decided to go on together. Dogs, cats, camels, goats, hens, sheep, donkeys, horses, cows always came back to the settlement even though men tried to move them away. They used to stay even though men took their eggs or milk away or even though men rode them. Even though men used to kill them and eat them. They wanted the agreement.

And that’s how craftsmen and cultivators and domestic animals clinched a deal. They decided to go on together. This was the deal: men had to protect domestic and courtyard animals from other predatory animals or men and offer them food and shelter and respect and they would give company, work, eggs, milk, meat and faithfulness in turn.

Life and nature witnessed the deal and they’re still its warrantors. These animals’ life would have been hard, just like human beings’.

The deal has never been broken. Actually there has never been the need to make it public to everyone. It was clear it had to be like that. Try to push your dog away: check out whether it comes back!. Or try to free the hens in the courtyard and see whether they run into the wood or remain. Hens don’t need a fence. They stay in the courtyard or close to it. Try to rob a cameleer of his camel and see how he will cut your hand and then how he will kiss the camel and stroke him for two hours when he gets him back.

Yet today the pact needs to be enlarged and made explicit.

Mankind has built huge cities with millions of people, real cancer cells in the natural texture where resources, energy, life, love enter and only toxins and garbage come out.

Empires were created and thousands of individuals gathered in capital cities to avoid being scattered and being attacked by armies. Yet in these towns lived hundreds of thousands of slaves exploited to build pharaonic works.

Empires collapsed and capital cities disappeared. But then came the industrial revolution and again urban agglomerates of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people were built around big factories.

Intensive breeding of domestic or courtyard animals for commercial or alimentary purposes clearly break the deal.

There is no agreement allowing the raising of billions of chickens pressed up with the only aim of selling their meat. There is no agreement allowing men to keep millions of cows and beefs closed or held in stables just to sell their meat and milk in big cities. There is no agreement allowing to feed these animals with cheap food or to disrespect them. It’s not in the agreement to leave donkeys and camels behind just because today we have machines and tractors.

And still there’s no agreement to genetically modify the species at our taste.

In the last 40 years, thanks to the technological revolution and the developments in medicine, human beings have hugely increased and the cancer metastasis of metropolis are spreading in all the environment.

Men are not only breaking the deal with domestic and courtyard animals but also the general agreement with life, nature and themselves.

Destruction pushes on and we are living the biggest mass extinction after the one that got rid of dinosaurs.

That is why several organisations, whose aim is to re-establish the original deals, have been created. Along with some others that want to clinch new deals. And there are others that do not want to give in to any deal but aim at taking possession of life and nature for ideological purposes.

We are at a crossroads in history.

Domestic and courtyard animals feel betrayed, life and nature are witnesses of the betrayal and feel offended, betrayed and threatened because of the spreading destruction and the intensive exploitation of resources.

I fear hard retaliations towards human beings.

Thanks to technology and telecommunications it would be possible to get rid of cancer metastasis of megalopolis and to build towns of 10/15 thousands inhabitants where everyone, especially children, can live in simple and healthy way, without illusions, respecting themselves, the others and life together with domestic or courtyard animals.

It would be possible to use only clean energy and 100% biodegradable or recyclable products.

It would be possible to create huge pollution-free areas to allow animals and tribal peoples who like wild and free life to continue their history without any interference.

A new deal should be clinched: men have to take on the responsibility to guarantee and protect life and nature. Human beings have to respect and guarantee the respect of deals on our planet. If that is done, maybe the gates of heaven will be opened for us.

Otherwise, as we all know, God gives and God gets it back. I don’t think the time at our disposal is endless: it is running out at the same pace of destruction. A new deal ought to be clinched.

If a new deal is not clinched and a new agreement is granted respect I will contract mankind out.

Domenico Schietti