The Salem Cat Trials
People weren't the only creatures singed by the burning years. Cats were
persecuted quite severly as well.
Have you ever noticed that a real
black cat is pretty damned hard to come by? Oh yeah, I see black cats all
of the time, but none that don't have the trademark white on their chest,
belly, or both. Take notice sometime, and you will see.
During the burning times black cats were associated with witches, and, of course,
witches were of the devil. Any black cats that were found in this period were killed (usually
burned), just the same as the "witches" (who were mostly just innocent people who had nothing
to do with the craft, midwiving, or anything of the sort anyhow).
But, black cats with white on their chests were said to be "marked by an angel"
and were spared. The only surviving cats, (save for a few)
were the ones with the white trademarks...
Rigor Mortis
Today we dissected a cat in Biology class.
It’s not like I was totally grossed out or anything. That kind of stuff really doesn’t bother me; there’s no blood, just that nauseating sweet smell that is no longer formaldehyde, but something else that is used today... I don’t know what it’s called...it does the same thing as formaldehyde.
No, the dissection part doesn’t bother me at all. I know that’s hard to believe, but let me explain:
You can look at these dead pickled things two ways: as something that was living, or as a specimen that just sits there for you to cut into, and poke at, to study. With some of the creatures it’s easier to see them as a specimen, reptiles, amphibians, insects (very large grasshoppers!). But when you come to a mammal, perhaps because it hits closer to home, it bothers me. I see a cat as a once-living creature. Maybe that’s unfair, and I should feel just as appalled at the injustice done to the reptiles clear to the insects (it does bother me a little) but I don’t.
Dissection doesn’t bother me.
A once living creature does.
Lets see. Here we have this beautiful female cat. She’s got white fur, and yellow eyes. She’s had a hard life, but she keeps on going. She keeps on living and eating and breathing, just like the rest of us. Just like the rest of us it is her right. But someone decides they’re going to be "humane". They snatch her up from the streets, put her in a cage for awhile; when noone comes to get her, they gas her like Nazis.
Here’s your bar of soap kitty, go take a shower...
Main point: We are destroying a creature’s right to live, and we have no place to do that. It’s sad when we call killing animals humane, and letting them live is the sin.
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