Freethinkers Book Club: Fuzz by Mary Roach

Freethinkers Book Club

Fuzz - When Nature Breaks the Law

By Mary Roach

Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 7:00 – 8:30 pm

Hosted by: Karen C.

Three hundred years ago, animals that broke laws would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. Today, author Mary Roach has traveled to current “hot spots” to witness and explore the nature of human-wildlife conflict for her sometimes funny but very serious book, Fuzz.

In Fuzz, she highlights some of the 2,000 species in 200 countries that regularly conflict with humans. Each conflict requires a resolution “unique for the setting, the species, that stakes, and the stakeholders.” She sets out to see “what science has been bringing to the table, and what answers it might offer for the future.”

Animals aren’t literally committing criminal acts, they follow their instincts. But these conflicts create dilemmas for people, municipalities and hardships for wildlife. Roach speaks with professionals who are genuinely passionate about their work and offers suggestions for readers on how to deal ethically and effectively with their own wildlife issues where they live.

Mary Roach is a science author who specializes in the bizarre and off beat. As author of New York Times bestsellers, Stiff, Packing for Mars, Bonk, and Grunt, her books have been published in 21 languages. She has also written for National Geographic, Wired, Discovery, New Scientist, among others.

Feel free to join if you have not read the book, but if so, please take a look at one or more of these resources.

NPR Author Interviews, What Happens When Nature Breaks the Law? Mary Roach Tells You in New Book, Fuzz (8 minutes)

What Happens When Nature Breaks The Law? Mary Roach Tells You In New Book 'Fuzz' : NPR

NPR Bullseye with Jesse Thorn – Author Mary Roach on Fuzz (42 minutes)

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/04/1090970706/author-mary-roach-on-fuzz-when-nature-breaks-the-law

Wikipedia – Fuzz: When nature breaks the law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzz:_When_Nature_Breaks_the_Law

Discussion Questions

• In researching this book, Mary Roach comes across a number of highly unusual job titles throughout her travels. Which unconventional job did you find most interesting or appealing? Which would you least like to do?
• Roach’s exploration takes her outside of the United States, particularly to India and New Zealand. How do the approaches to wildlife management in those countries differ from those taken in the United States? Which country’s philosophy makes the most sense to you?”
• Roach distinguishes the felony crimes that form the focus of the book’s first half from the “less grievous but more widespread crimes that she explores in the second half. Does the punishments that species face throughout Fuzz match the severity of the crimes committed? If the magnitude of a crime doesn’t determine the penalty, then what does? Do you think animals can be punished for following their instincts?
• Hunters and more conservation-minded specialists have an uneasy relationship throughout Fuzz; yet Roach also notes, “Naturalists were the original biologists, and hunters and trappers were the original naturalists.” Where in the book do hunters and conservationists but heads, and where are they unexpectedly aligned? How do farmers fit into the equation? And how are the perspectives of all three rooted in what Roach calls “the inside-out history of conservation in America?”
• National Wildlife Research Center Public Affairs Specialists Gail Keirn reflects that “When it comes to wildlife issues, seems like we’ve created a lot of our own problems.” What does Keirn mean by this and does Roach agree? Where in Fuzz do humans seem to be at the root of the wildlife problems?
• After visiting Roger’s Colorado feedlot, Roach writes, “I’d like to end this book right here (p 288). Why does she feel this way? How do the gene drives that Roach discusses earlier in the chapter complicate her hopeful ending?
• What does Roach’s investigation of the natural world in Fuzz tell us about ourselves as human beings?
• Has Fuzz changed the way you think about the natural world? Will you approach your interactions with wildlife any differently?

Please join us!

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