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“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It’s a compelling argument against factory farming of domesticated animals.
This conversation on domestication lead to Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker article ‘Dog Story’ - an essay on the ‘co-evolution’ of dogs and man. Before the dawn of agriculture, the docile wolf was more successful in adapting to his environment, scavenging around humans without terrorizing them and creating a truly symbiotic relationship.
Maybe early Dog would have made a different decision if he could see what this forced evolution would turn him into… the Yorkie, the Pit Bull, the French Bulldog: the free food just wasn’t worth it. I don’t think any of us would continue with our present lifestyle if learned that we were to become some type of human luxury ornament for a dominant species.
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