Posted on 10/23/2006 12:00:01 PM PDT by blam
A horse and a zebra are essentially the same animal. If europeans could domesticate one, the africans should have been able to domesticate the other. Jared Diamond's argument that Africa lacked domesticatable species was utter nonsense.
I knew that would rile the cat crowd.
lol sorry...it's just that the ones my calico's brought home have been babies. i can empathize with you, however. i live rurally but my mom lives 'in town' (which is still rural). every spring she'd spend hundreds of dollars at the nursery only to find all her pretty things ravaged by peter cotton tail and friends. i don't yet have a garden as i'm concentrating on readying my donkeys for breeding next year. i have 3 sicilian jennies and a jack.
i guess i'm still a softy at heart for the cute and cuddly looking. note, i said 'looking'. i had a pet rabbit a few years ago. she went 'adios' after going 'apey' & attacking me twice and lunging at my then-toddlers. the trophies my cat's brought home have either been laid upon my doorstep or under the wheels of my truck where i can't see them. it's usually upon my return home that i find the evidence of the kill in the driveway....but i've been the one responsible for some of the 'mutilations' ...i.e. squooshed guts & brain matter. not a pleasant site when you're about to prepare steak and mashed potatoes, you know.
not a cat person at all, really. got my first cat last year and my second one before x'mas. mostly out of necessity as we keep horses and donks and have a barn close enough to the house that cats were necessary to keep mickey & minnie from playing house in our house or where we keep the feed.
Cats aren't domesticated; they decided to live with people because we attract good things to eat, like mice. Of course, we've completely misunderstood this and now feed them directly, but that's OK with the cats, too.
With dogs you get devotion; with cats you get mutual utility and, possibly, friendship between equals.
I once adopted a feral farm cat (and her surviving kittens). They all got plenty to eat, after they moved in with me, but the mother continued to kill mice. I once estimated that she was averaging at least 5 mice a day, from the fields around the house. I never saw any evidence that she was eating them.
i thought the same thing! lol the democrats really need to change their party mascot to something a little more in line with their personality. my donks are brave, strong, and extremely courageous as well as loyal & loving. they don't "cut & run" either. any suggestions on what could be defined as a cowardly animal to replace the donkey mascot?
The Democrats didn't choose their own mascot. It was assigned to them by a Republican, newspaper, comic artist, in the 19th century. I think it was in the 1870s.
Isn't there substantial evidence of dogs living with Neandertals? More than 40,000 years ago?
Well, not exactly.
A zebra is to a horse what a wolf is to a dog.
Is a wolf a dog?
Well, yes, in a way.
But no, you can't really domesticate them.
Yes, there are people who keep wolves as pets. It's a really bad idea. The wolf, if it grows up as a puppy, can beocme very attached to the household, but it's not a dog. It's a wolf, and it's never very comfortable around other people. It looks like a dog, maybe a husky, but it doesn't ACT like a dog. It's not friendly. It's extremely protective of the family, and it's a dangerous beast inside the house. No, not (necessarily) dangerous to the family it loves and is part of, but dangerous to everybody else, including invited guests.
Wolf puppies are like bear cubs: they are playful and friendly, but grow up to be wolves and bears. Maybe they like YOU, but they do not like our SPECIES; dogs do. Zebras are probably like that.
In Genesis 43.17, Joseph's brothers are afraid that the Egyptians will enslave them, "and take our donkeys too."
I think a long time ago the Democrat symbol (to help illiterate voters cast their ballots) was a rooster, before the cartoon jackass caught on.
all the more reason for them to make a change. i think the artist was being too kind. *natch, natch, wink*. when i look at my donks, i don't see cowardly creatures. quite the opposite. i'm leaning toward pollyannaish's suggestion. but those are hard to find. lol
Humans did not domesticate the cat. The cat domesticated humans. I daily serve as a cat doorman, a cat foodserver and food provider, a cat chaser (stimulation), medical provider, ad infinitum. And I don't mind -- he keeps me greatly entertained.
Jared Diamond's entire book was utter anti-western nonsense, how else could it have won him a Pulitzer?
"Well, not exactly.
A zebra is to a horse what a wolf is to a dog. "
Dogs are derived from wolves that were domesticated thousands of years ago. The horse and zebra were probably the same species a hundred thousand years ago. Zebras today are probably much like Horses were when they were first domesticated. Over time with selective breeding, desirable traits are enhanced and the species diverge. I bet ancient Europeons would have no more trouble domesticating the Zebra than the original horse.
Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
