From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 01:20:49 MST
[Loki] Well, I sit and watch these barbs go back and forth, and while I
could wail "Can't we all just get along!?" I have come to realize that you
two, Hermit and Mermaid, rather enjoy this yourselves.
[Hermit] And thus is wing'ed Cupid painted blind :-) Oops, wrong play.
Whether 'tis nobler of the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
outrageous bitches, or by opposing end them is probably more apposite albeit
marginally, but accurately misquoted.
[Loki] But it does leave me not really wishing to enter the back and forth,
but rather to comment more detached like this.
[Hermit] /me nods understandingly.
[Loki] I don't really put much stock in these arguments about what other
animals do or don't do, vis a vis cannibalism, and its implications for
human morality or immorality. I think this comes down to some sort of
"naturalness" thing, . . . do this or don't do this natural/unnatural thing.
As far as the rest of the animal kingdom goes, and even for humans
throughout much of their prehistory, cannibalism, while not a frequent (say
. . . every day or so) occurrence, certainly doesn't rate as a rare
occurrence either.
[Hermit] I would suggest that is [b][i]irrelevant[/i][/b] except when
somebody asserts that pigs and chickens don't engage in it (particularly
when the someone hates being contradicted :-)) If there are worse examples,
I have yet to think of them (although Kalkor's mice don't seem to do to
badly). So I'll <snip> from here on.
[Loki] The truth however remains that cannibalism always carries higher
disease risks than other kinds of consumption, and I think that probably
many if not all animals have a certain amount of innate avoidance of the
behavior, not that they won't override this under the right circumstances.
[Hermit] Indeed. As I said, "It is a good source of cheap protein, although
it carries rather nasty risks of infection (see BSD/CJS etc.)" All of your
comments on this score are completely correct.
[Loki] And indeed, eating anyone close to you evolutionarily carries a
certain though lesser amount of the same risks, as parasitic entities cross
over more easily to similar kinds of hosts.
[Hermit] We are not particularly close to Polar Bear's, but it is best to
not eat them - and to give their liver a wide berth. It is high enough in
Vitamin A to kill you. Refer "Toxicity of polar bear liver.", Rodahl, K.,
Nature 164(4169): 530-531, 1949. The main reason not to eat them is that
many of them harbor trichinosis which if undiagnosed till too late can be
fatal, but more frequently is just horrible - fever, muscle pain,
encephalitis, meningitis and myocarditis are all symptomatic and have long
term health effects.
[Loki] Obviously, of course, we have to eat. But on the whole and all other
things being equal, better to do so when possible, lower down on the food
chain, and further away from human relatives. This still leaves a lot of
meat for us.
[Hermit] Naturally. But a balance is always a good idea. And for humans,
balance includes meat. Tell your girlfriend Hermit said so <grin>.
Kind Regards <except for your HTML mail>
Hermit
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