Ignorant comments and surprising cruelty




The other day, I was driving a co-worker home. We had to stop at the local PetCo as my dogs needed some food and he needed to pick up a filter for his fish. When we get back into the car, the subject turns to my dogs' diet-they are all vegan, as well as the cats-who are not.

Anyway, what infuriated me was the ignorant and unsubstantiated claims coming out of his mouth. He stated that dogs were carnivores and cats were omnivores because they ate grass. WTF????

In doing research, I found out that dogs, like us, are omnivores and scavengers whereas cats were obligate carnivores. In other words, dogs could live healthily & happily on a veg diet whereas a cat could not.

Also, several vets have confirmed that our diet choice, for the dogs and cats, was sound. Their health has checked out fine and we are, in no way, endangering our pets. In fact, their main veterinarian was quite supportive.

On to the other subject. Lately, I've been reading the Anne of Green Gables series. For some reason, I was never interested in the series as a child. Currently, I'm into the third book, Anne of the Island. The whole series has been mostly delightful, save for a few instances of exploitation and speciesism. Imagine my shock when I read the following two passages, one from chapter 16 and the other from the next chapter, 17.



In chapter 16, Anne and her friends are settling into place they've rented for the school term. A stray cat decides to adopt Anne and the others are fearful that Rusty will start fights with the other cats the housekeeper will bring when she moves in. Phillipa, Anne's flighty friend, suggests they chloroform him as it is the "most humane way". It goes downhill from there. Here is the passage, after Phillipa's rather graphic description of how to do it:

Accordingly the chloroform was procured and the next morning Rusty was lured to his doom. He ate his breakfast, licked his chops, and climbed into Anne's lap. Anne's heart misgave her. This poor creature loved her-trusted her. How could she be a party to his destruction?

"Here, take him." she said hastily to Phil. "I feel like a murderess."

"He won't suffer, you know," comforted Phil, but Anne had fled.

The fatal deed was done in the back porch. Nobody went near it that day. But at dusk Phil had declared that Rusty must be buried.

"Pris and Stella must dig his grave in the orchard," Phil decreed, "and Anne must come with me to lift the box off. That's part I always hate."

The two conspirators tip-toed reluctantly to the back porch. Phil gingerly lifted the stone she had put on the box. Suddenly, faint but distinct, sounded an unmistakable mew under the box.

"He-he isn't dead," gasped Anne, sitting blankly down on the kitchen doorstep.

"He must be," said Phil incredulously.

Another tiny mew proved that he wasn't. The two girls stared at each other.

"What will we do?" questioned Anne.

"Why in the world don't you come?" demanded Stella, appearing in the doorway. "We've got the grave ready. 'What, silent still and silent all?'" she quoted teasingly.

"'Oh, no, the voices of the dead
Sound like the distant torrent's fall.'" promptly counter-quoted Anne, pointing solemnly to the box.

A burst of laughter broke the tension.

"We must leave him here till morning," said Phil, replacing the stone. "He hasn't mewed for five minutes. Perhaps the mews we heard were his dying groan. Or perhaps we imagined them, under the strain of our guilty consciences."

But, when the box was lifted in the morning, Rusty bounded at one gay leap to Anne's shoulder where he began to lick her face affectionately. Never was there a cat more decidedly alive.

"Here's a knot hole in the box," groaned Phil. "I never saw it. That's why he didn't die. Now we've got to do it all over again."

"No, we haven't," declared Anne suddenly. "Rusty isn't going to be killed again. He's my cat-and you've just got to make the best of it."

"Oh, well, if you'll settle with Aunt Jimsie and the Sarah-cat." said Stella, with the air of one washing her hands of the whole affair.

Then, a few pages later, the chapter ends on this note:

Eventually Joseph and Rusty accepted the situation and from sworn enemies became sworn friends. They slept on the same cushion with their paws about each other, and gravely washed each other's faces.

"We've all got used to each other," said Phil. "And I've learned how to wash dishes and sweep a floor."

"But you needn't try to make us believe you can chloroform a cat," laughed Anne.

"It was all the fault of the knothole," protested Phil.

"It was a good thing the knothole was there," said Aunt Jamesina rather severely. "Kittens have to be drowned, I admit, or the world would be overrun. But no decent, grown-up cat should be done to death-unless he sucks eggs."

Then, in the next chapter, Davy, a 10-year old twin who lives at the Green Gables, wrote a letter to Anne, which contained this excerpt:

Mr. Harrison wanted to get rid of his dog. So he hunged him once but he come to life and scooted for the barn while Mr. Harrison was digging the grave, so he hunged him again and he stayed dead that time"

Ok......nice to read about the cruelty inflicted on non-human animals because they are unwanted or have outgrown their usefulness. Though, to be honest, not much has changed.

Still, I was taken about by the frank description of violence, in a children's book. I guess it's a monument to its era. I suppose I'm going to have read it with more caution from here on. This was a series I was thinking of reading to Caleigh, when she's older, but am not so sure now. Very disappointing.