Hundreds of thousands of Cassin’s auklet chicks starved to death last year on Triangle Island, their fluffy corpses left to litter the largest bird colony on Canada’s West Coast.
Read more.
If you are interested in social justice you might be interested in this document written by the philospher Martha Nussbaum entitled Beyond the Social Contract: Toward Global Justice.
Plutarch, Life of Cato the Elder 5.2-5 (tr. Bernadotte Perrin):
And yet we know that kindness has a wider scope than justice. Law and justice we naturally apply to men alone; but when it comes to beneficence and charity, these often flow in streams from the gentle heart, like water from a copious spring, even down to dumb beasts. A kindly man will take good care of his horses even when they are worn out with age, and of his dogs, too, not only in their puppyhood, but when their old age needs nursing.
While the Athenians were building the Parthenon, they turned loose for free and unrestricted pasturage such mules as were seen to be most persistently laborious. One of these, they say, came back to the works of its own accord, trotted along by the side of its fellows under the yoke, which were dragging the waggons up to the Acropolis, and even led the way for them, as though exhorting and inciting them on. The Athenians passed a decree that the animal be maintained at the public cost as long as it lived.
Then there were the mares of Cimon, with which he won three victories at Olympia; their graves are near the tombs of his family. Dogs also that have been close and constant companions of men, have often been buried with honour. Xanthippus, of olden time, gave the dog which swam along by the side of his trireme to Salamis, when the people were abandoning their city, honourable burial on the promontory which is called to this day Cynossema, or Dog’s Mound.
We should not treat living creatures like shoes or pots and pans, casting them aside when they are bruised and worn out with service, but, if for no other reason, for the sake of practice in kindness to our fellow men, we should accustom ourselves to mildness and gentleness in our dealings with other creatures.
For a contemporary view on the issue of the treatment of nonhuman species, see What Do We Owe Our Fellow Creatures?
Lucian, Hermotimus 86 (tr. K. Kilburn):
If in the future I ever meet a philosopher while I am walking on the road, even by chance, I will turn round and get out of his way as if he were a mad dog.
Two Giant Panda twins have been born at a research centre in China. It is extremely rare for Pandas to give birth to twins and the baby bears, pictured looking peaceful in their special care unit, were delivered at Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center in Sichuan province on August 7. The weaker twin was only 8.7cm long at birth and has been nicknamed 51g because that was his initial weight. He was nurtured in their special care unit and both are now in good health.
A museum worker moves the mummy of a dog, dating from between 1100 and 1300, from the Chiribaya culture at El Algarrobal museum, near the port of Ilo in southern Peru September 12, 2006. An ancient Peruvian culture loved its dogs so much it buried them alongside humans and even tossed in some tasty treats for the afterlife. Now, researchers are working to get these very same dogs official breed status. (Photo: Mariana Bazo/Reuters)
Most animal archaeology stories – particularly mummies – come from Egypt. But this cemetery full of excavated dogs is in Peru.
I love this picture.
Did I Miss Anything
Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class
Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours
Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 per cent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent
Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose
Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring this good news to all people
on earth
Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?
Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human existence
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered
but it was one place
And you weren’t here
