"Anna L. Abrante" wrote:
>  I personally would prefer
> the company of animals over people any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
> They are pure, they never lie, cheat or steal with maliciousness. They do not
> murder for sport ( hunting to eat is not sport).
Well, I have counter examples to above just from my pets, not even talking
about wild animals. I have had different pets that would KNOWINGLY damage
stuff and pretend they didn't. One cat used to scratch off wall paper
off the walls. So I punished him (humanely - used a flower sprayer to
spray water on him while puting his face to the results of his scratching).
After that he seemed to stop. Until I discovered he was scratching off
wallpaper where I couldn't see it - behind the curtains and the bed and
the sofa, you get the picture.  The other pet was a bunny who would chew
up cables - electrical, audio, etc. After his first or second 'punishment'
(I yelled at him) he seemed to stop, until I noticed that the cables
kept getting worse. I started sneaking up on him and saw that he chewed
them up just as much when I wasn't around. As soon as he would spot me
he'd stop and pretend to do something else. As for murdering for sport -
have you ever seen a house cat playing with a baby mouse. Not a pretty
sight. Never seen a house cat actually eat a mouse. Sometimes it would
bring it back as a 'trophy', many times not. A coworker recently
described how his (fully grown, not a kitten) cat was torturing a baby
field mouse for a while until he saved the mouse from the cat. At first
he thought the cat would just kill the mouse and didn't want to interfere
with his instincts. But after a while it became obviouse that the cat
knew what to do, but just preferred batting the poor thing endlessly,
like some toy. (This cat has actually killed wild life before, from mice
to rats to birds, so is aware of how to do it).

> They take responsibility for their young
Ever heard how cookoos raise their young? Just one example.
> and carry themselves in the world.  They do not blame their
> weaknesses on others, and do not spend their lives whining about it and
> making excuses.
Do they have a need or means to blame weaknesses on others?
> They do not take pleasure in deliberatly causing others
> pain just for the fun of it.
See above (or see a national geographic video on river otters playing
with fish they never intend to eat or give to their young).
> They are not hypocrites in a world of finger
> pointers.
Do they have the means to be hypocrites? (i.e. speach)

Don't take this as a slamming. You simply have a very idealistic view
of animals and express it in the language that is even more idealistic
(e.g. what does it mean when you say animals are pure?)

Ilya