A True Story
This really happened (within the bounds of recollection, i.e. some details may be fudged) but whether or not you believe me is your business.
It seems that lately the treatment of animals has been in the news a lot. Between the vegetarian movement, PETA, and Michael Vick, just to name a few, the debate over how to treat animals and whether they should be treated humanely seems to be gaining more and more steam. Some religious people will argue that animals "don't have a soul" and thus aren't worthy of our respect or protection. Other people just don't care, arguing that animals lack the sentience to understand even if we were to perform kind gestures for them.
One day when I was in elementary school, 4th or 5th grade, my mom was driving me home from somewhere when we came upon a car that had seemingly stopped in the middle of the road for no reason about a block away from our home. When we came to a stop behind the car, we saw the reason that it had stopped in the middle of the road: a duck was standing directly in its path, several feet in front of it, preventing the car from moving without hitting the duck. Although it explained the reason for the car stopping, it now begged the question of what the duck was doing in the middle of the road. When we looked more closely, the answer to this became evident as well. A second duck was crossing the road further behind the first; the first duck was standing between the car and the second duck. There was something wrong with the movement of the second duck - it was limping while it walked and its wing may have been bent at an awkward angle. It became obvious not only that its leg and possibly wing where broken, but that the first duck was standing in the path of incoming cars (risking being running over by a heedless driver, as it were) to enable the second duck to cross the road! It was obvious that with its injuries, the second duck would never have been able to cross without help because it would have been too slow to avoid an incoming car. This story has always stuck with me - compassion is more universal than we might like to believe, transcending even species. It may be true that animal behavior is no more than chemicals and neurons firing off in their brains, but then again, so is ours. The fact is that that duck did more for its friend than most humans would have. Think on that next time you wonder whether or not animals understand what we do for them.
It seems that lately the treatment of animals has been in the news a lot. Between the vegetarian movement, PETA, and Michael Vick, just to name a few, the debate over how to treat animals and whether they should be treated humanely seems to be gaining more and more steam. Some religious people will argue that animals "don't have a soul" and thus aren't worthy of our respect or protection. Other people just don't care, arguing that animals lack the sentience to understand even if we were to perform kind gestures for them.
One day when I was in elementary school, 4th or 5th grade, my mom was driving me home from somewhere when we came upon a car that had seemingly stopped in the middle of the road for no reason about a block away from our home. When we came to a stop behind the car, we saw the reason that it had stopped in the middle of the road: a duck was standing directly in its path, several feet in front of it, preventing the car from moving without hitting the duck. Although it explained the reason for the car stopping, it now begged the question of what the duck was doing in the middle of the road. When we looked more closely, the answer to this became evident as well. A second duck was crossing the road further behind the first; the first duck was standing between the car and the second duck. There was something wrong with the movement of the second duck - it was limping while it walked and its wing may have been bent at an awkward angle. It became obvious not only that its leg and possibly wing where broken, but that the first duck was standing in the path of incoming cars (risking being running over by a heedless driver, as it were) to enable the second duck to cross the road! It was obvious that with its injuries, the second duck would never have been able to cross without help because it would have been too slow to avoid an incoming car. This story has always stuck with me - compassion is more universal than we might like to believe, transcending even species. It may be true that animal behavior is no more than chemicals and neurons firing off in their brains, but then again, so is ours. The fact is that that duck did more for its friend than most humans would have. Think on that next time you wonder whether or not animals understand what we do for them.
posted by Svengali Jack at 4:05 PM
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