Why do we have to change the original design of animals? Why should cats and dogs have flat faces, no tails, sloping backs, and other useless aberrations of the original design? Why do we have to alter nature? Is it because we can? Should we? Some alterations seem somewhat harmless and in many ways quite humorous. For example, did you know that male dogs whose owners have an issue with neutering their companion, can have Neuticles implanted to make the dog look more “manly”?
Other alterations aren’t as humorous. In South Korea several years ago, researchers cloned one puppy from hundreds of harvested eggs. Why? Just because they could? And then there are the scientists who want to bring back the stone age, or its equivalent, by trying to clone extinct species. Where would those species live since their habitat most likely no longer exists—and maybe that’s the reason they went extinct in the first place?
Who are we to alter some species so that they become unrecognizable from the original? What other anomalies of nature will we be creating in the not too distant future? Accepting animals as they are and realizing that those who are gone, are gone for good—whether a beloved companion animal or a wild species—gives us more time and freedom to enjoy the animals who are here, in our midst, every day.
Changing them says more about us than it does about them. So, when you think about it…why do we do it?