At 13:15 1999-08-06 -0700, Wally  wrote:

>suggested that perhaps allowing themselves to become
>domesticated was a (sneaky?) method for ensuring
>survival.

It is temptating to express it that way, but evolution does not
have any purpose. What happens is just the result of the fact that
an individual with traits that give more offspring will after a
while have more of its genes in the population than one with
not so good traits. Having traits that make another species give
You food and protection is of course a good thing, but it is not
the result of a choice, it just happened to happen.
Expressing it as the one You cited gives a false impression of
what has happened.

- Hans