[Words & Music: Ted Kirkpatrick]

[This song is dedicated to the animals we share this planet with and the people who work to protect them]

[Solo: Aaron]

Is it greed or is it ignorance or is it both?
As the bulldozer trashes a thousand years growth
Clear cutting with a clear conscience

A burning desire to burn
If a tree falls and no one's around
The wildlife still hear it crashing down

[Chorus]
You were gone before we even knew you
And there's no way to ever get you back

Gorilla seven days old
Ripped from his mothers dead arms
Her hand now an ashtray souvenir for a tourist's charms

[Chorus]
Will I join the ranks of the photo gallery
It may be the only way left to see me

Thousand acres a day
Burning it all away
Extinction - the price to pay

A ton of rhino, a pound of horn
The Javan one cursed - the wheels of greed are born
Medicinal myth, smuggled to Hong-Kong
Ancient superstition - reality gone wrong

[Chorus]
I joined the ranks of the photo gallery
Its the only way left to ever see me
You were gone before we even knew you
And there's no way to ever get you back

The greatest land animal killed for a foot of ivory
Will your children live to see one
Or witness decimation by tyranny

Passenger pigeons blackened the sky
Never a chance we would say goodbye
Oh how I wish I could see one fly

[Chorus]
You were gone before we even knew you
And there's no way to ever get you back

American symbol of freedom and power
Only for target practice by the hour
Buffalo sat on the brink of no more

[Chorus]
Will I join the ranks of the photo gallery?
It may be the only way left to ever see me