Science Quote by Dian Fossey

Fossey’s line lands like a field report written in the tense of an obituary: poaching isn’t a niche crime against “nature,” it’s rehearsal for human violence. The phrasing is blunt, almost prosecutorial. “The man who kills...” repeats like a drumbeat, turning a single poacher into a type: someone practiced in crossing moral boundaries, someone for whom life becomes a solvable obstacle. It’s less about sentimental empathy for animals than about tracing a pipeline of impunity.

The subtext is strategic. Fossey is arguing for moral continuity at a time when conservation was often dismissed as an elite luxury project, something to care about only after “real” political problems are solved. She flips that hierarchy: violence against animals is not separate from social order; it’s one of its early warning signs. The phrase “get in his way” is doing heavy lifting, shifting the focus from hunger or tradition to power. This isn’t subsistence hunting; it’s the logic of domination, where inconvenience justifies cruelty.

Context matters because Fossey wasn’t theorizing from a distance. Working with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, she confronted organized poaching networks tied to local economies, corruption, and intimidation. Her activism made enemies, and she was killed in 1985. Read alongside her life, the quote doubles as a self-indicting prophecy: protectors become targets when profit depends on fear. Fossey’s intent is to make conservation sound like public safety, because in her world, it was.