[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