Thursday, June 21, 2007

Dramatic Chipmunk

Thank you Boing Boing and whoever created this masterpiece of drama for giving me a sore gut. I think it sums up all of Shakespeare in 5 seconds.

(And I know it is not a Chipmunk, but their title was much funnier than rodent-related title I could come up with.)

Labels: acting, animals, drama, video

¶ 8:16 PM 1 comments

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Dogs and us

Having grown up with packs of dogs (literally at one time we had 6 dogs all at once), I have often thought of getting a dog of my own, particularly now that I am living in a house where a big dog would have some room and a yard to play in as needed. Will Self, however, defines why I will never be a dog owner again:

Then came children of my own and the push-me, pull-you of swings and roundabouts. Initially, I found children to be poor dog substitutes. They didn’t come when you called them, and they were very slow – particularly the males – to be house trained.

Of course, this was before the plastic-bag-gloved hand became a mandatory canine accessory. After the legislation, human babies began to look positively continent – what with their neat little absorbent poo-pads – compared with these hairy shitters. Indeed, the whole notion of being responsible for a creature that requires me to pick up its excrement seems a curious inversion of what I always understood about the interspecies relationship.

You see it is the dog that owns you, not the other way around. Self goes on to write that

I thought dogs were domesticated by humans, and that over many millennia we selectively bred them as hunting companions, guards, herders and so forth. We fed them and in return they did our bidding. There was no doubt about which was the subordinate species. The shit thing has completely altered my perspective. It now seems that far from us selectively breeding them, it’s been the other way round. Over many millennia, dogs, by providing human dog lovers with an adaptive advantage (the ability to take dull walks whatever the weather, the gumption to open fiddly tin cans, the capacity to pay exorbitant vets’ bills), have been selectively breeding us.* (will-self.com � Blog Archive � Dog days)

So maybe I will be owned again by a hairy shitter. I kind of pine for the old days on the farm where I could unleash my pack of dogs onto the fields. I think it might be that I started all those plants, or that I've been dreaming of rolling fields of grain.

For now the housemate's cat will have to do, although he mostly just ignores me even when I have to feed him.

*(While it strikes me that George Carlin has a comedy bit very much like this, I still find Self's way of putting it to be very funny.)

Labels: animals

¶ 10:43 AM 5 comments

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Monday, January 22, 2007

Disingenuous or ignorant: you make the call

State Senator Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, has an interesting perspective on why Utah does not have a felony animal cruelty law:

Peterson isn't sympathetic to those who would abuse animals. 'I raise livestock for a living,' he said. 'We've had animals shot with BBs, arrows.'
He said he is nervous that such legislation might be used by animal rights activists to victimize farmers. 'I shudder to think doors we open up when we make it a felony.' (deseretnews.com | Pet-cruelty law sought:)

The last time I checked private citizens (in this case the dreaded animal rights activists) did not conduct prosecution of criminals. That function is carried on by government through the district attorney. So is the Senator being disingenuous here or ignorant? What comment, as well, is he making about his farming practice that someone might characterize it as cruel?

Labels: animal_rights, animals, politics, Utah

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