\n
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Baying forlornly,
\n hissing at strangers and increasingly dehydrated and hungry, tens of
\n thousands of pets have probably been left behind in the devastated city
\n of New Orleans, animal care agencies say.<\/p>\nAnimal rescue workers from across
\n the United States are combing the city deserted by its citizens when
\n Hurricane Katrina approached almost two weeks ago. They wade through
\n thigh-high muck, commandeer abandoned boats and use crowbars to bring
\n stranded animals to safety<\/p>\n."The cats are terrible. Out of every
\n 10, nine are scratching and biting and hissing," said Jane Garrison
\n of the Humane Society United States as she cuddled two terrified dogs
\n in an aluminium dinghy.<\/p>\nDogs often leaped into their arms, she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dogs also like swimming in filthy water and eating their
\n own feces. Both dogs and cats evolved in the wild and have complete,
\n intact sets of survival skills which don’t involve human beings. That
\n they are able to so completely change their character and behavior is
\n evidence both of the persistence of evolutionary genetics, and of the
\n presence of human-controlled genetic manipulation and modification.<\/p>\nThe survival instincts are hardwired in cat and dog
\n brains, the result of millions of years of evolution (dogs are descended
\n from primitive carnivores known as miacids. Miacids ranged from gopher-sized
\n to dog-sized animals, and appeared in the Lower Tertiary about fifty
\n two million years ago). <\/p>\nOn the other hand, the cute, docile personalities
\n we have come to know and love are relatively recent. In the case
\n of dogs, probably only a few thousand generations. Cats are an
\n even more recent invention, having become useful only when people started
\n developing stockpiles of grains, about 10,000 years ago.<\/p>\nWe say invention, because dogs and cats are two of the
\n oldest examples of intelligent human intervention in the process of evolution.
\n By selective breeding and lifelong exposure to humans, "primitive" peoples
\n were able to practice genetic modification and create a distinct sub-species
\n of Canis Lupus<\/a> (wolf),
\n modeling its attributes and personality to meet human needs; heightened
\n senses and watchfulness, an alarming bark, loyalty and protectiveness
\n to humans, territoriality, etc.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, what to do with the dogs and cats of New
\n Orleans? Hopefully, concerned do-gooders will rescue some of them, and
\n try to reunite them with their families. But experts say that once
\n a domesticated animal goes feral, it can require years of care and therapy
\n to help them regain their previous lives. In some cases even then
\n they are never the same.<\/p>\nCombined with the increasingly obvious fact that many
\n Americans refused to go anywhere<\/a> without their pets, even at considerable
\n risk to their own lives, this makes the Dowbrigade hope that new FEMA director R.
\n David Pauliso<\/a> is a pet person, because future disaster planning had
\n better take our four-footed friends into account.<\/p>\nfrom Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Baying forlornly, hissing at strangers and increasingly dehydrated and hungry, tens of thousands of pets have probably been left behind in the devastated city of New Orleans, animal care agencies say. Animal rescue workers from across … Continue reading