You must choose ONE of these three and say WHY...

A fascinating collection of answers!

I have to say that I chose those three options for the following reason. I wanted to see what the core attributes were that made up morality; essentially each of us has a personal belief and opinion. People wouldn't think twice about squashing a fly, but where we can attribute more human qualities (be it intelligence or facial features resembling us), more of a 'halt' is put on such actions.

I arbitrarily chose those three actions because:

1) Cats are often regarded as cute, and people attribute human characteristics to them, often petting them.

2) Dolphins have cerebral cortices larger than humans and are intellectually complex thus 'intelligent'.

3) Chickens are often eaten by humans and so that variable was necessary.

I would have hypothesised chickens being killed to have been most frequently chosen. A 'needs must'; they aren't as cute as cats; they probably do not anticipate what is about to happen to them.....

Curious.

And kind regards,

Jon

Me, I'd set light to the cat with a burning chicken & then club them both to death with a Dolphin.

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
Me, I'd set light to the cat with a burning chicken & then club them both to death with a Dolphin.

A twisted new twist on the old fashioned Surf & Turf.

quote:

Originally posted by Consciousmess:
they aren't as cute as cats; they probably do not anticipate what is about to happen to them.....

An argument for eating stupid people? And no feathers or fur (well...)

I think that sort of meat really would be murder!

It would be hard to get any consensus on which humans were thick enough to be suitable for turning into food!

ATB from George

quote:

It would be hard to get any consensus on which humans were thick enough to be suitable for turning into food!

Maybe in France.

Dear Howard,

Less than likely on the Naim Forum, I am sure you would agree!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
Maybe in France.

http://courses.csusm.edu/hist318ae/Montaigne%20essay.htm - a local boy.

Just a little something...
Cats...
My neighbour has three, we call them piss, puke and crap because thats all they do - and in everybody elses garden except their own...

I feel so used Dont I even get a prize for being part of the experiment? I think Tonym's response was the best. I wonder how we might do in one of Stanley Milgram's "experiments" Seems he gave people a task to help train/condition human "test subjects" by giving them false impression that they could use a button to apply electric shocks to "help" the subjects learn. Amazing how many people got buzzer happy. These films are always a part of basic psych course and they are kind of funny and scary as hell at the same time.

Jon

I don't know where you come from, but in my experience there are as many cat haters as there are cat lovers out there. Also, cat haters seem to hate cats for their cheeky, snooty, superior, haughty, arrogant characteristics.

Cats, of course, treat all humans with the contempt they deserve - needless to say our cat treats my wife as an equal (she feeds the cat) and me as 'bottom cat/scratching post'. There may come a time for reckoning, my fuse is getting shorter...

Put a lighter to a dolphins tale. If it's under water, it won't do much harm.


DMC

quote:

Originally posted by Frank Abela:
Jon

I don't know where you come from, but in my experience there are as many cat haters as there are cat lovers out there. Also, cat haters seem to hate cats for their cheeky, snooty, superior, haughty, arrogant characteristics.

Cats, of course, treat all humans with the contempt they deserve - needless to say our cat treats my wife as an equal (she feeds the cat) and me as 'bottom cat/scratching post'. There may come a time for reckoning, my fuse is getting shorter...

Frank

I think you were responding to me. Did you get the impression I like cats? Funny, I like cats for about three seconds (see my previous post) One second to look at, one second to reach down and pet, and one to be thankful I have good reflexes to pull away before being clawed. We had a cat, and it was good fun until the babies came. The f&%# used to attack us when we put the baby in the bath. I mean completely go nuts, jump on our back. Used to attack the baby when he went near the scratching post (our couch leg.) Then as the baby would be sleeping, after a middle of the night feeding, the cat would start yowling at about 4 am. Like clockwork. I admit, I even caught myself thinking "could one go to jail for killing a cat?" and daydreaming about various plots. I still have dreams about cats attacking me (I know...I'm ill)Bastard couldn't even be bothered to catch a little mouse that used to frequent our kitchen. That cat now lives with the grandparents 3000 miles away.

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
That cat now lives with the grandparents 3000 miles away.

Did they attack you too?

The last batch of chickens we hatched was 75% rooster. Never mind. Christmas soon. Option 3.


Willy.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
That cat now lives with the grandparents 3000 miles away.

Did they attack you too?

Dont think they didn't try when I fooled them into taking our nice little kitty home...

Now, of course, the cat, having moved from our city apartment digs to the country, thinks he is a bad ass. He goes out for days hunting and eating birds, moles, whatever and barfing it up on the grandparents doorstep. But he gets his ass kicked regularly by the tough country cat down the hill. I laugh silently.

Maybe we should start a new thread along the lines of.."Pets..why do we have them?"..dolphins, chickens, cats i mean any creature really
but i guess it would be somewhat difficult to keep a dolphin?

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
Maybe we should start a new thread along the lines of.."Pets..why do we have them?"..dolphins, chickens, cats i mean any creature really
but i guess it would be somewhat difficult to keep a dolphin?

Could be enjoyable - the thread that is. Makes me think of a certain John Waters film. My answer to why I ever had a cat: SWMBO!

Sure wish I had a dog though.

I can imagine it now:

My pet dolphin, Flipper, lives in the swimming pool ...!

I'll stick with my ambition to have another dog one day. It is impossible to be wholely serious when there is a dog about the place1

George

Dogs?
Why not..after all they are supposed to be man's best friend.
Years ago a pal of mine had a snake, i never saw it move but he assured me it was alive - i was never really convinced..

I used to know a girl who lived in the same flats I was in, in Hereford, who had a pet Python. She used to walk around with it draped over her shoulders.

Horrible.

In those days I had a sheep dog, and there must be some inherited reaction to snakes in dogs, because he went straight into attack mode when he saw it. No doubt he would have had a go at killing it if he had ever got to it!

His name was Fred, and in his younger days he was a fearless and tireless working sheepdog. Black and tan Welsh Collie whose few white bits were auguementent as the tan turned whitey grey!

He loved the car [or van] and was a terror for any cat. He started as very good with cats, being a puppy in a household where my brother brought up a rescued kitten.

But someone who worked on the farm had a grey [Persian?] cat that was horribly aggressive. Fred saw that this cat was no play-mate and he tried to ignored it, but one day the cat attacked him leaving him with a ripped ear among other nasty scratches. For several months they had a stand-off, which sometimes [if the cat was close enough] resulted in his being chased away.

One day, being the doggy cumudgeon he was, he stood his ground. I did not see the fight, but I found most of the cat's fur on the millroom floor. I thought the dog had caught a pigeon to start with, but I soon realised that it was fur not feathers.

I carefully swept them up as I guessed [wrongly] that he had killed the cat. The feline reappeared with two-tone fur[longer dark grey and shorter very light grey] about three weeks later, and I said nothing of the fur in the millroom to its owner, who had been beside himself over his missing mog.

Needless to say the chasing was from then on the other way round, but the dog never went further than this guy's garden gate.

The upshot of this was that I now had a cat-killer sheep dog on my hands! He killed more than one including all the ferule cats on the farm. At least it was safe to pick up bales of straw and hay without putting your hand into some cat do [in the dark of course], or have to tolerate the vile smell of a tom spraying everywhere.

Unfortunately he did get me into trouble in his ways from time to time!

Another desperate habit of his was to visit bitches on heat. One evening about ten past nine m neighbour Mr P-T- knocked on my door to ask if I had any idea where Fred was, to which I could only reply negatively, but pointed out that I had turfed him out a few minutes earlier for his evening pee.

Mr P-T- informed me that he was knotted with his bitch. Now I was never fond of Mrs P-T-, but I was sure my dog would know better than that. In fact they had a young pedigree lab and Fred had popped into their living room and was giving considerable pleasure to this novice. I am afraid I could not help smiling.

I told him that you could not separate them without with serious risk to both parties, except for thowing a bucket of water over them. This would have ruined the Axminster, so was thought an unsuitable way forward.

Next day I had to face the wrath of Mrs P-T-, and let me say that the more appropriate name might have been Mrs PMT. It did not help when I suggested that they were only doing what comes naturally!

I had to have my dog castrated as three year old, which was a sad thing to do, just because some idiots did not have the sense to keep a bitch on heat safely locked up. Still that is what you get when "townies" move into the country.

Fred lived to the rip old age, for a sheep dog, of twelve years old, and was one of the few dogs I know that adored almost all human beings - particularly every child he ever saw, whom he regarded as playmates to while away hours with - [if not other dogs, except bitches], and for those people he disliked, he simply ignored them. Patience of an angel with some people.

Brilliant dog, huge character, hard as nails, deaf as a post on occasion [as it pleased him], and quite impossible to take yourself seriously when he was round.

If I was in a grump, even as a very old dog, he would come along and try to pull a sock off, and usually so you could not ignore him, also would take a little bit of skin as well if I wasn't engaging in his request for a mad scrap and roll round on the floor.

A puupy he remained for all his life, at least when not on duty with sheep or cattle.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I used to know a girl who lived in the same flats I was in, in Hereford, who had a pet Python. She used to walk around with it draped over her shoulders.

Horrible.

ATB from George

Something like this?

Aaaaaagh! Just like that, but the girl was older ...

I have got some more dog stories if you like!

George

Thats my kind of dog George! keep em coming!

I have about a hundred photos from over the years, but no scanner, but I'll see what I can do about that!

One of his favourite activities was running with me on the bike, on the end of a three meter chain! When necessary he had a good deal of road sense, and it used to make going up hills easier as he used to puill like mad.

I used ride with one hand while holding the chain in the left ...

I had him put down in '97, but still miss the old devil!

Everyone should have a dog! One amazingly irritating habit he carried off all his life was to run up behind people and bowl them over by crashing into the backs of their knees. Strangely he always got away with it as all it was exhuberance, and he ended up get shouted at followed by such a sad face from him, and then a good deal fuss! He converted many people to loving dogs, though he could be a bit intimidating to a young child as he would charge up, and stop just short.

One day he destroyed a Prep-school football match by running onto the field and grabbing the ball. From two teams of eleven and a ref, the result was one team of twenty-three trying to catch one dog! His idea of Heaven on Earth, but I got quite bollucking for it, even if the Head admitted that he had never been so entertained at a football match later! I asked if the intermission counted towards injury time? At the time there was no comment, but later we had a proper laugh about it. He was a lovely dog with children, prefering nothing better than something like a rugby scrum with as many as he could get involved in the jape.

ATB