The witnesses told an appalling tale of arrogance and destruction.[Ed.: Critics complained that along with their problems understanding the complex ecological issues involved, none of the 7-year-olds in the play served as mankind's defense attorney.]The frog said she was born with a third hind leg because humans polluted the marsh where she lives. A panther told of a whole species that people had wiped out and of hunters who display the head of the animals they kill.
The prosecutor, a crow with a long black beak, charged humanity with transforming a "once-living planet into a dull and lifeless rock."
For the students inside the animal costumes, their play, "The Trial of Humanity" climaxed months of rehearsal and even the building of a "jungle" with Palmer High School ecology teacher Michelle Corbeil-Crawford. More than 600 people in this blue-collar town near Springfield watched last month as animals prosecuted people for their environmental crimes.
