Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilizationShaler, Nathaniel Southgate
History
Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization
Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate
Domestic animals
It is likely that the first step into the new field of human duty, due
to our better understanding as to our place in nature, will be in the
direction of a greater care as to our domesticated forms. While we must
continue to make their lives subserve our own, we may well insist that
they should be properly housed, and have what it may be possible to
afford them in the way of their primitive joys, which come from the sun,
the air, and their natural food. No one who has seen a long-stabled
horse made free of a field can have failed to note the intense pleasure
which he takes in returning to something like his natural conditions.
Many a cow stable with its foul conditions inflicts more and more
enduring torments than all the vivisectionists that some misguided
philanthropists are fighting; yet because of the novelty of the
naturalist's work these attend to the new scene and neglect the ancient
abuse. Among these evils which are to be corrected we may also account
that which arises from the unguided development of what are called fancy
breeds. Thus among our horned cattle, the Jerseys have been brought to a
point where, from the iniquitous inbreeding, which is against what may
be called the morality of nature, they are fearfully subjected to
tuberculosis. The punishment for this insensate performance comes back
upon mankind in the dissemination of consumption; but unhappily it does
not visit the people who are responsible for the development of this
breed. A like, though less considerable, evil is shown in the fancy
breeds of dogs, pigeons, and some other petted animals, where for
amusement and as an indication of his power man has raised up many
decrepit and sickly varieties, which are not likely to have a fair share
in the pleasure of life which their natural breeding insured them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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