what is a pest?

Some hunt dolphins.  For them, they are classified pests I imagine.  Justification would be that they eat the food that the fishermen are targetting.  In South Africa our tourist industry classifies sharks as pests and actively fishes them out of the sea - indiscriminantly too, killing many other marine creatures at the same time.

Interesting for me that while working in the animal industry, where we all clearly care about wild creatures, I am still called to 'save' people from cockroaches.  Have seen same people walking through a critter exhibition area exclaiming in wonder at little creepy crawlies.  It is clear that we are socialised to like some animals and dislike or fear others - not a good result for our planet.

So what is a pest.  Some would argue that it is something that is somewhere it does not belong - implying that human beings have the territorial rights over every place on our planet.  Others would argue that pests are dirty and should be eradicated.   Most 'pests' are not actually dirty - they are simply feeding off what dirty lazy humans have left behind.

Insecticide advertisments freak me out.  Little cartoon characters and then they are dead.  True 'doom' and gloom.  Does nobody else notice that these are selling 'death'.
I must be a pansy.  Over-sensitive.  I pray I am not alone.  I wonder if the only 'pests' are the people.