Bob, I would GREATLY enjoy seeing your osteological stuff.  Though I left
the field years ago when a tropical ( from Suriname) neurological disease
cut short my studies I still love it and strongly miss it, but I am not with
a school and had to drop my last journal when the price quintupaled.  Ah,
now I will probably be flamed by those who think that their own areas
advance but others are still back in the Teddy Roosevelt era.  Okay, before
you huff consider that the comparative osteology, dentition, and fossil
collection I helped put together as a student curator contained NO animals
sacrificed for the sake of the collection, and that was between 20 to 15
years ago.  Yes, we accepted animals which had already died in the studies
of others, but multiple uses of an animal save lives.  We had more critters
which had been in large zoos (where the breeding populations are carefully
maintained, and from which come animals that have been used in reinstatement
programs when habitat can be saved) and which died of natural causes, and
many more were the times I lost lunch salvaging road kills so that others
could learn, and that knowledge might save critters.  I.E., lay off Bob.
Having people here with expert backgrounds can only help your own pets, and
if you think a major university puts together teaching collections by
killing you are really missing the mark.  I realize there are places which
print tripe asserting that no progress has been made away from the Teddy
format, but these places would probably also print garbage about domestic
ferrets (In fact, one HAS -- regularly -- by insisting that they are wild.),
and about your own field if it was assumed a danger.  Be GLAD there are
experts here like Bob, Bruce, and others.
 
Everyone with sense does things to help the planet and other species as well
as their own.  Some, like Steve, find they cope well with being vegetarians
while others of us just keep our flesh intake down.  Many of us decided to
not have kids, but instead help the children of others, others will not
dissect a critter, some of us have only one car (small and efficient) and
use that as little as possible.  No one can do it all, and many areas are
nebulous -- for example the dissections value depends on what that knowledge
is used for and what is dissected (like me, for instance, since I AM a
cadaver donor).  To flame Bob for exaggerated aspects of his profession is
not logical, nor accurate, nor reasonable if you also have parts of your
life which MIGHT contribute to the woes of the world.  Since I have never
met anyone with the answers to all conundra, I suspect you must have a few
violations.  Next time, write something but hold it at home till you calm
down.  That works.  Believe me, I am human (enough) so have to do that
myself regularly.  (Yes, I realize this was somewhat off-topic, but we have
some people here who are great fonts on information and having them slammed
(That verb dates me.) because of a misconception might one day lose us
someone less patient than B.; we do not need such a loss.)
 
 Nutrient intake in the wild vs.  that in captivity: In the wild (which has
 problems of its own resulting in much early mortality -- i.e., if you are
 over your late 30s - early 40s, and your ferrets over 3 you should be
 grateful for the extra time) it is useful to adore the flavors/feels of
 nutrients which are found only rarely out of captivity/civilization or
 which require that a population of animals take energy expensive
 detours/efforts to acquire them.  In current humans we have such craved
 items which were hard to acquire in most of our past (salt, fats, flesh
 protein, sucrose, etc.) readily available, and often given to our young on
 a regular basis in infancy and toddlerhood.  It may be that either
 availability or early misuse alone, or both together can contribute to
 (mitigated by other factors such as genetics) the conditions which lead to
 people having dangerous diets.  If we provide certain nutrients in amounts
 beyond those they are needed in, especially during years when food
 preferences are being formed can we create abuse in our pets which could
 get as bad as human misuse if they controlled their own diets?  It is
 certainly possible.  On the other hand, I am not crazy about giving
 critters recognizable meat or eggs, especially in the raw forms, not only
 because of possible poisoning, but because, if they ever did get into a
 situation where a carcass was present I would not want them to easily
 recognize it as potential food.  As a result, I prefer to cook and puree
 such items with other foodstuffs.
 
 
        I talk too much.  -- Sukie (Steve as hubby, Meltdown, Ruffle,
'Chopper, Spot,
                        Meeteetse, and Warp)
[Posted in FML issue 1404]