From: spinoza@next03wor.wam.umd.edu (Prince Lev of the Domovoi)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals
Subject: Re: Boiling lobsters
Date: 17 Apr 92 06:33:03 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.221202.21278@u.washington.edu>  
toby@milton.u.washington.edu (Toby Bradshaw) writes:
> In article <RJC.92Apr15220141@brodie.cstr.ed.ac.uk> rjc@cstr.ed.ac.uk  
(Richard Caley) writes:
> >In article <1992Apr14.162152.12092@NCoast.ORG>, Christopher Morton (cm)  
writes:
> >
> >cm> Not surprising that you'd force your animal slave into becoming a
> >cm> participant in the murder of another living being....
> >
Animal slave? What'd I miss? 
I'm a bit new to this group;  it seems to me I'm not up on all the  
terminology used. To what (or whom) are you referring?
Surely you don't mean Richard's companion(s). My family provides food and  
shelter for a dog (Goldie), four cats (Lucky, Mitzi, Pani, and Rocky) and  
three rats (Spinoza D. Rat, Spock D. Rat, and Zarathustra D. Rat). None of  
these companions is ever forced to eat anything (not that you'd EVER have  
to force thisn crew to eat, but I digress); they seem to enjoy meat quite  
a bit, actually, and for the most part, are pretty unenthusiastic about  
vegetables (except for Goldie, whose appetite is insatiable). The rats  
tolerate veggies and fruits but are clearly more excited at the site of a  
drumstick than a carrot stick..............
Now back to the issue of animal slavery........presumably you are  
referring to some sort of arrangement which is only, or mostly beneficial  
to the "owner" of animals such as dogs, cats, birds, fish, etc......it  
seems to me , though, that most human-canine, human-feline, etc,  
relationships do not belong to this pattern, with the obvious exception of  
the professional guard dog, or the sled-pulling dog. In majority of  
human-canine/feline/etc
relationships I've observed 'round my neck of the woods, the humans  
provide food, shelter, and medical care for these companion animals,  
without any  economic payoff, much like any other member of the family  
that needed to be provided for (such as a small child)..........in some  
cases, exactly like a small child, as when Mom fed Lucky baby food from  
her finger for the first two months he was with us (Dad and my brother  
scraped Lucky off the side of Route 50. They'd been returning home from  
College PArk in rush hour, saw Lucky [at that time a stray] on the other  
side of 
Route 50, made a U-turn in rush hour traffic, and rescued him. He had  
assorted abrasions, a broken front tooth [the stump of which eventually  
had to be removed afer it became infected], as well as a broken jaw. T'was  
touch and go for a while there, but he rallied, then settled in and became  
just like all the other guests at 'Chez Weiss'. Which is to say, he became  
a throw rug with feet, and one of the more interactive warm water bottles  
I've seen.  In short, I'd characterize the realtionship between the human  
and nonhuman members of the family as a sort of symbiotic one. Though  
Lucky, Mitzi, Pani, Rocky, Goldie, Spinoza, Spock and Zarathustra do not  
contribute in the economic sense to the welfare of the family, they do  
contribute in the same way a child might, with the additional benefit that  
Lucky is a black cat, which can be fairly amusing if the superstitious  
appear in the home. 
	Well, I've rambled enough for the time being, so I suppose I  
should get out of the lab now and get home so's I can watch the late show  
with Pani, who enjoys sleeping on the cable box, and occasionally even  
changes channels for me (though not on command, but ya can't win 'em all,  
I suppose)....................but I digress.

Signing off from College Park, where I have no dogs, cats, or rats living  
in my room (sigh........), heading off to Bowie, where I'll be reunited  
with the entire gang.

HAPPY EASTER!
HAPPY PASSOVER!


shalom

Lev
'jeff skorecki-weiss'
"spinoza@wam.umd.edu"

"Lo yisa goy el goy cherev, lo yilmedu od milchama..................until  
then, keep the Galil oiled and loaded...................................."