Jon starts off his speech by telling a story on how they teddy bear was invented. It was the fall of 1902 when president Theodore Roosevelt went on a black bear hunting trip in a town near Onward, Mississippi. The first day he had no luck finding any black bears. The second day he had gone back to camp when his hunting guide and dogs captured a female black bear. The hunting guide hit the bear in the head with the butt of his gun and called out to Roosevelt so that he had the honor of killing it. When Roosevelt got to the bear, he decided that it would be against his code as a sportsman to kill the tied up and confused bear.
The story of the speared bear turned into a cartoon in Washington DC called "Drawing a line in Mississippi" Toy makers took this new drawing of the bear and created a stuffed animal named after Teddy Roosevelt called Teddy's bear.
Jon goes on to say that the invention of the teddy bear was not just another successful toy creation, it changed the way society looked at bears. At the time, the government was wiping out bears at a rapid pace. 95% of Grizzly bears were exterminated out of their territory. When this new toy became popular with children, all of the sudden bears seemed less scary and more cuddly.
There are physical and physiological reasons to why we like some animals more than others. It has been proven that we sympathize more with animals that look like human babies than we do with animals that look nothing like us. At the time of this bear story we were at a time of urbanization and moving away from wildlife. Nature started to become less monster like because we didn't have to fear it anymore. When we were about to kill off these bears that we previously hated, and heard the whole story of Roosevelt spearing the black bear, we started to really care and sympathize with them. Throughout the years, images of animals have changed.
Many people thought that the teddy bear was just a phase. When Taft was going to be inaugurated, he was the guest of honor at a dinner in Atlanta. The main course was possum and a group of supporters gave Taft a gift of a stuffed possum. The possum plush toy was named Billy Possum and became wildly popular throughout the country. But Billy Possum's fame ended very shortly because the story was just not right. The teddy bear had taught us a lesson that we were killing the animals to the point where they need help to survive to this day.
Even though I didn't know about the Theodore Roosevelt story prior to watching this video, I could see how the teddy bear could teach me compassion because as a child I was given many teddy bears and in turn I now don't fear bears but respect them.
The story of the speared bear turned into a cartoon in Washington DC called "Drawing a line in Mississippi" Toy makers took this new drawing of the bear and created a stuffed animal named after Teddy Roosevelt called Teddy's bear.
Jon goes on to say that the invention of the teddy bear was not just another successful toy creation, it changed the way society looked at bears. At the time, the government was wiping out bears at a rapid pace. 95% of Grizzly bears were exterminated out of their territory. When this new toy became popular with children, all of the sudden bears seemed less scary and more cuddly.
There are physical and physiological reasons to why we like some animals more than others. It has been proven that we sympathize more with animals that look like human babies than we do with animals that look nothing like us. At the time of this bear story we were at a time of urbanization and moving away from wildlife. Nature started to become less monster like because we didn't have to fear it anymore. When we were about to kill off these bears that we previously hated, and heard the whole story of Roosevelt spearing the black bear, we started to really care and sympathize with them. Throughout the years, images of animals have changed.
Many people thought that the teddy bear was just a phase. When Taft was going to be inaugurated, he was the guest of honor at a dinner in Atlanta. The main course was possum and a group of supporters gave Taft a gift of a stuffed possum. The possum plush toy was named Billy Possum and became wildly popular throughout the country. But Billy Possum's fame ended very shortly because the story was just not right. The teddy bear had taught us a lesson that we were killing the animals to the point where they need help to survive to this day.
Even though I didn't know about the Theodore Roosevelt story prior to watching this video, I could see how the teddy bear could teach me compassion because as a child I was given many teddy bears and in turn I now don't fear bears but respect them.