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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 2:07 pm
by MacCruiskeen
From DU Forums:a dolphin with a whale. And a hippo with an impala:
IndyOp (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-09-07 01:04 PM
Response to Original message

31. Did you see the whale and dolphin at play?
Edited on Sun Sep-09-07 01:04 PM by IndyOp

This was posted on DU not long ago... The dolphin and a dolphin friend were seen swimming round and round the whale. Suddenly, as the wildlife photographer watched, the dolphin emerged from the water on top of the whale, arching its body so the whale could lift it out of the water. When the dolphin returned to the water it swam over to its dolphin friend and they did the dolphin equivalent of a high five!

Image

We are witnessing some fascinating interspecies interaction lately...

Hippo attempts to save impala from crocodile...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbskV44lZfc

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 3:46 am
by Gouda
"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Humankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view),
consists in its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
And in this respect humankind has suffered a fundamental débacle,
a débacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."

-- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

[emphasis added by gouda]
_______________________________________________________

And children, the poor, the prisoners; the least of these...

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:01 am
by Gouda
We are witnessing some fascinating interspecies interaction lately...
They're organizing.

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:22 am
by FourthBase
Gouda wrote:"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Humankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view),
consists in its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
And in this respect humankind has suffered a fundamental débacle,
a débacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."

-- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

[emphasis added by gouda]
_______________________________________________________

And children, the poor, the prisoners; the least of these...

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40
Amen x 2.

I would personally add that the true test of sanity is whether you feel compelled to tearfully embrace the collective whipped horse.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:23 am
by Horatio Hellpop
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power
I disagree. It's easy to show compassion to the powerless precisely for that reason - they don't have the power to hurt you. It's much harder to show compassion to the creature that's capable of mocking or ridiculing you, robbing or molesting you, depriving you of liberty or life.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:29 am
by theeKultleeder
Horatio Hellpop wrote:
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power
I disagree. It's easy to show compassion to the powerless precisely for that reason - they don't have the power to hurt you. It's much harder to show compassion to the creature that's capable of mocking or ridiculing you, robbing or molesting you, depriving you of liberty or life.
Sing it, brother!

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:06 am
by Gouda
HHpop:
It's easy to show compassion to the powerless precisely for that reason - they don't have the power to hurt you. It's much harder to show compassion to the creature that's capable of mocking or ridiculing you, robbing or molesting you, depriving you of liberty or life.
What forms and manifestations of compassion have you ever seen bestowed by the powerful to the powerless? (Philanthropy, in my view, is not compassion by a long shot.) I see a historical wasteland void of compassion. The débacle Kundera is talking about. Maybe it's not so easy after all for humans.

Though I do agree with you that "it's much harder to show compassion to the creature that's capable of mocking or ridiculing you, robbing or molesting you, depriving you of liberty or life." But that's another point.

That Hitler loved animals, and was kind and compassionate to them (as fas as we know) while holding human beings in horrific contempt may also be another interesting point.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:50 pm
by theeKultleeder
The point is to make empathy/compassion as uniform and sincere towards all life as is humanly possible.

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:56 am
by Horatio Hellpop
Ok I agree with you all. Love is all good people need and music sets the sick ones free.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:21 am
by MacCruiskeen
1. A lion reunited, after one year in the wild, with the two humans who had raised her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1pWzoLvT8#

(YouTube, 1 minute)

2. A bonobo baby with a dove:

Image

3. A baboon grooming its pet chicken in a zoo in Lithuania:

http://www.cinestatic.com/infinitethoug ... encore.asp

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:30 am
by Horatio Hellpop
That first clip with the lion is amazing.

Dog shelters abandoned baby alongside her own puppies

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:29 pm
by MacCruiskeen
Argentine dog saves abandoned baby

By Daniel Schweimler
BBC News, Buenos Aires

Friday, 22 August 2008

An eight-year-old dog has touched the hearts of Argentines by saving the life of an abandoned baby, placing him safely alongside her own new puppies.

The country's media are calling him "the miracle baby".

He was born prematurely to a 14-year-old girl in a shanty town outside the capital, Buenos Aires.

She is said to have panicked and abandoned the boy in a field, surrounded by wooden boxes and rubbish.

Then along came La China, the dog which somehow picked up the baby and carried him 50m to place him alongside her own puppies.

The dog's owner heard the child crying and found him covered with a rag.

The baby, weighing 4kg (8lb 13oz), had some slight injuries, but no bite marks. The owner called the police and the child is now being looked after by the authorities, while a decision is taken about his future.

The frightened mother appeared shortly after her baby was found.

The Argentine media has descended on the shanty town, talking of "the Argentine Romulus and Remus", the founders of Rome, abandoned as babies and rescued by a wolf, nearly 3,000 years ago.

La China, worried about her own puppies, is reported to be petrified by her new found fame, and her owner says he is worried that she is not eating.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7577275.stm

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:27 am
by brainpanhandler