okay, i can't decide if this is animal cruelty or maybe the best idea on the planet.
i love foxes, but unlike cats and dogs, they are wild and elusive (maybe why i love them). so i have thought i will never "tame" a fox... one particularly stunning fox had a lead role in my favorite book, le petit prince. this fox was tamed by the little prince, and so the thought was there: i want a pet fox. on several occasions i have seen them in the wild. you might say they are my "meme". there was a time when i even became vegan because of a touching experience i had with a family of 3 foxes at dawn... but to bring them into your home? i can't decide if this is right. the russian doctor that created this "special breed" of tame foxes genetically altered the wild fox through selective breeding... much like mendelson and pea plants, but with foxes. is this ethical? cats and dogs after all are much like mendelson's peas too, and have been developed into many breeds of animals that would not exist in the wild. in "the world without us," by alan wiesman, a world free from humans is illuminated, and weisman conceeds that without humans to care for pets, all domestic species would die first. so should i love the wild fox, or envy the tame fox? perhaps it is only beautiful for me to imagine a tame fox, but to actually have one is another thing. as tagore said, "emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree." and so to take the fox out of the wild, may be to spoil its very being. perhaps there is something to be said that we haven't all wanted pet foxes yet... let them be wild, elusive, and beautiful. for now, i will still want a greyhound.
vs.
tu es responsable de ce que tu as apprivoisé.
you are responsible for what you tame.
-antoine de st. euxpéry, le pétit prince
