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Furvey 6 - Animals

40. What animals are you most/least comfortable with?

Most: Rabbits! =:D Other than lagomorphs, I could (and sometimes do) spend hours and hours on the local hills watching birds of prey, particularly buzzards. Also squirrels, otters, deer, swans and certain insects. Among domestic(ish) animals, I quite like cats.

Least: Dogs. I've never got on with them at all, other than working dogs, although I'm trying (with mixed success) to do something about this. To be honest, I'm generally much happier with wild animals than domesticated ones.

41. Do you believe that animals have ESP?

Only if you remove the hyphen. By which I mean that I'm certain there are extra senses animals possess that we either don't have or that we do have but don't use, but I don't think there's anything about them that's outside the bounds of Nature.

42. Do you think it is acceptable to hunt/raise animals for food?

Yes, though only within reasonable limits. And as I mentioned in Q10, that doesn't include things like foie gras or crated veal.

43. Do you think it is acceptable to hunt/raise animals for fur/leather?

I think leather is acceptable if it's a by-product of animals killed for food anyway, although I'm not entirely comfortable with it, and if I can find some synthetic shoes that are both cheap and non-foot-hating, I'll happily wear them. Fur? No. Enough said.

44. Do you think it is acceptable to hunt/raise animals for sport?

Well, "sport" isn't the right word for the activity undertaken by those people who go out and have fun by killing animals. I can think of several words that would do better, but I'll keep things clean and stick to "torture". Britain is supposed to be a nation of animal lovers, and yet it's still legal to get your kicks by ripping a living creature apart for no other reason than that you enjoy it. *sigh* I'd better stop this answer here, or I might end up ranting for hours.