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sadness re: hybrids


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Posted by Kat on May 04, 2003 at 15:53:51:

In Reply to: sadness re: hybrids posted by snakepimp on May 04, 2003 at 10:28:26:

We are making an unforgivable mockery of the beauty of nature’s creations through such practices.

Hrm... Are you aware that the designations 'species' and 'subspecies' are both manmade and determined? Human beings looked at two similar creatures and decided that one was species X and another was species Y, based on appearance, behavior, habitat, or percentage of genetic similarity. The animals couldn't care less about being labeled 'cornsnake' or 'black ratsnake' or whatever. The designation of 'species' is entirely a human concept.

The practice of crossbreeding and creating integrades is basically ignoring those man-made and human-created boundry definitions, and just breeding for what one expects to be a new and different-looking creature. Animals don't necessarily follow the same boundries. Take ligers for example. Put a lion and a tiger together, and sometimes they'll mate, no mate-swapping or physical manipulation required. And yet no one will argue that lions and tigers aren't different 'species'.

So are we to assume that everything that happens without human intervention is 'right' and everything that happens WITH human intervention is 'wrong'? I find this a ridiculous idea all around. In nature, murder, rape, and numerous other 'crimes' are commonplace. Male bears will kill a mother's cubs so that he can mate with her and father his own. Sexually frustrated dolphins will rape other dolphins -- there's even a case where a frustrated male dolphin attempted to have unwanted sex with a female human swimmer, nearly drowning her in the process. How's that for your 'nature is always morally right' concept?

If you ask me (and I know you didn't, but I'll answer anyway), 'Nature is always morally right' is one of the biggest fallacies out there.


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