[gemy]

Thank YOU Lisa for the reference I will read that book shortly.


Ethical treatment of animals - where to start? We humans have not even sorted out ethical treatment of humans - bioethics - scientific ethics - cultural ethics etc. We have hardly a nursery school primer on ethics. Across even our own culture we have hardly started to define concepts - argue those - and at its most basic even understand that ethics - unlike certain natural laws say gravity - will change over time - for how can they not? Ethics are rooted firmly in the messy, muddy grey zone.


You can't dissect on an anatomy table a particular ethic. Its nerves and blood supply are ever changing - based on many factors - again not clearly understood.


And so we individual human beings - muddle along. Answering questions for ourself (and btw in our individual methodology) - how much exercise for a dog is too little? Too much? What kind of food to feed - is kibble really so bad? What in xxx name is going on with Vaccines? How much and what kind of discipline for my dog? How long alone can I leave my dog? To crate train or not? How many times to the vet a year? When to go? How do I know if my dog is happy? What does it mean if he is not? Does an unhappy dog make me a bad person?


And yes there are many books written by *experts* that can and often do easily contradict one another. But still we go to them for advice, ideas, and some semblance of how to critically think on a topic.


We have not even sussed out the boundaries and scope of *animal rights* to discuss rationally. Why are we even talking about it? Is a worm to have the same rights as a human? Maybe evolution might see somewhere down the road true consciousness in say dogs or horses - but it is not here yet. IMO much before this happens we will have a crisis of human population outgrowing the ariable farmable land. Meat might just become waytoo expensive to farm. God knows we do not have a human handle on population overgrowth.


All of us may be forced to become vegetarians as a matter of economic necessity.


But back to dogs. I believe a dog finds most joy in working with and for their human! Dogs for the most part have a deeply ingrained need to work and be usefull. In these when so much of our population is rooted in a urban life - working dogs don't seem to be needed by humans or the concept is not even in most humans understanding of dogs. But you have a retriever get them to fetch your newspaper or slippers - train them from a young age.
You have a scent dog - then play find the treat or the toy! THe list goes on and on and on.


But here is an ethical question - just because you don't train, don't exercise your couch potatoe, don't even teach them the most basic of manners - does this mean you are being cruel to your dog? Is cruelty only about lack of food - or medical care - or too stern a discipline? And if so when and where does benign neglect slip into cruelty?