They accomplish that and the already diminutive presence they have in the world will shrink even more.

Once.

Some good humored banter never hurt anybody.

That is the sole thing I draw the line. Scynical as it may sound, ink on skin, no. It feels as an ownership brand that can never be taken off or thrown away.

I personally dislike the notion of being permanent on another life. Either because things don’t work, people grow apart or someone simply dies, from misfortune, sickness or old age, nobody should be tied to another, in any way. Life should go on. Must.

And I’m happily and for a long time monogamous.

What I wanted to convey is, if the mesh is fine enough, the pattern can get marked on the skin, leaving an elegant but discreet - shall we call it - love brand behind.

If you’re going to cheat, at least be bold enough about it and keep the wedding band on.

Use metal and artistic value, like this.

And if the pattern is open enough, sun ligh will leave the mark on the skin. It’s one very discreet way to keep the “mark” of who we love, skin deep.

I would still pick the African ones, nonetheless.

There is no need for sarcasm.

We tend to forget Africa had great kingdoms, with advanced civilization standards, before colonial times. Those kingdoms ruled the largest continent on the planet for centuries and elephants were animals used for both work and war.

Hanibal took elephants across the Alpes (most died) in order to invade Italy. I seriously doubt the general ordered his elephants from India.

I can’t remember where I read it but it was a good coverage on the historical use of elephants in Africa in pre-colonial, as in during the great african kingdoms. And lets not forget war elephants, in Roman times, were from Africa.

Yet I remember reading somewhere african elephants were tamed before their asian counterparts.

Thank you.

But… Why do you assume I have instant knowledge of acronyms because I opted to insert a comment on a topic that teased my interest? Does it pressuposes anything about my person?

Then what is the choice?

Good morning.

Let’s call that example the canary in the mine but I’m seeing many similar situations where I live.

Being in a less than urban area, there is still a bit of industry around and some factories are cutting staff and a few have already shut down operations, especially in sectors more closely related with end user products (clothing, footwear, yarn, etc). Industries with ties to industrial use (metal working, construction materials, wood and derivates) are keeping afloat but only replacing workers that go into retirement or that for some reason or another just quit, and these industries, in my understanding, are keeping afloat because of the hard push into more sustainable and efficient houses, which is forcing a good deal of public investment into large renovation projects and funds.

Parallel to this, bakeries, coffee shops, small businesses that rely on consumption, are shutting down. For me, this implies there is less money floating around.

Paired with the hike in housing…

You are going to have to unfold all of those acronyms before we can move forward with this conversation.

I don’t have the palest of ideas of what you are trying to convey.

Those two species got a “promotion” more recently into the realm of company animals but they started as food, due to being prolific and easy to keep. They are more sustainable as well, as a tangent comment.

We can argue on all fronts. This is speculation, for what it is.

The only thing I’m sure of is death and taxes.

I’m risking that statement because I’m seeing a good deal of events similar to what happened the last time we went through one (the world) and the big companies starting to let go people is like the canary in the mine.

I smell a recession forming!

If it is impossible, either shut down operations or find a way to pay for it.

Did the octopus bad mouthed you to deserve your curse?

I often wonder what crossed the mind of the first human that considered an octopus as potential food.

Interesting question from a chicken.

My concern is not morality and neither is that the issue here.

The animals we call farm animals today came from what are considered prey animals and the process of domestication was essentialy a process of reducing fear and wariness towards our species.

Dogs came to be from an apex predator that, we speculate, found advantageous to actively associate with our species for mutual benefit.

Different origins produced different outcomes.

Then let’s turn this on another angle: dogs came to be from a predator, and an apex one, capable and willing to prey on our species, unlike all other species we managed to domesticate.

Cats are not even domesticated, for all objective parameters. Cats are still predators, both potential and active. It is not without reason domestic cats are being viewed more and more as destructive for wild species.

I can go out on a leg and speculate these two species became viewed as food wrapped in myths, with tales of obtaining special powers or some other strange purpose besides avoiding death by lack of nourishment.

All other species we managed to tame came froma what are commonly considered prey animals and it was mostly a process of reducing the animals wariness to us.

Cows are considered a representation of one of the many indu gods and have a very unique status as such but are nonetheless still a source of food through the milk they provide.

Your examples are true and valid but I will insist those are exceptions and not norm. I live in a rural area and sheep, goats and cows are part of the landscape. The animals tolerate human presence, often understand it as a source of food and safety, but are wary, suspitious and generally keep their distance. Even pigs, that are considerably more inteligent than all farm animals don’t easily mingle with humans. But any dog, even a feral one, will approach us willingly.

A very welcome bonus to my job is going to places where usually other people won’t go and often find varying degrees of feral dogs. After the initial suspition, I find myself approached by the animals, observed, sniffed and “bothered” for pets and play. I wish I could do this with other animals but other animals avoid me and do their best to keep me as far away as possible.

Your remark on the lambs. The christian/jewish/islamic carried over the tradition from previous people. Sheep were often offerings towards supernatural entities but started as a resource/food source (wool and milk and finally meat).