In a recent interview with John Harwood on CNBC, a fly interrupted President Obama’s train of thought. In one quick movement, he killed it and said, “Where were we? That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.” The swatting has generated attention from the media at large and on YouTube—some videos have garnered more than 62,000 hits— causing people to question Obama’s animal rights ethics and even provoking some to learn more about a fly’s anatomy.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, expressed their disapproval about what it considers an inhumane action. According to an article on The Huffington Post, PETA representative Bruce Friedrich said, "We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," and "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." They still applaud his overall record on animal rights, but have decided to send him a Katcha Bug Human Bug Catcher, (available for purchase on PETA’s website), so that he can catch any future intruders and release them outdoors without causing them any harm.
Cosmos Magazine, cited in the New York Times Week in Review this past Sunday, had a different take on the incident, however, explaining that Obama’s fly swatting skills were remarkable given the unbelievable speed at which flies typically react to external danger. According to scientist Michael Dickinson, before a fly leaps away, its brain “calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter.” In this case the President was far too quick for his winged irritant. Maybe the millions of other houseflies in the world will take a cue from their fallen cousin before buzzing around Obama’s head again.