Furry Mama despairs.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 6.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Thoughtful.

Sometimes (not often admittedly), but sometimes Freda Fretter's worries are genuine. For a few days now she's been stressing over how anybody could possibly "believe", or even more worryingly, not care, that all animals are sentient beings. Furry Mama in particular is despairing that this is even a topic for the C21st! Okay, some people may find it difficult to believe that a mosquito can feel pain or have feelings, but they also probably wouldn't think that a fish could - and yet their are lots of videos on You Tube of fish in tanks greeting their humans; of a Conger Eel making friends with a diver; of fish working together to hunt, to protect themselves; Blue Planet II has just filmed a fish who uses a tool to crack open his favourite delicacy, cockles. So how could a larger animal with a brain and a full nervous system, possibly not feel pain, have emotions, feel fear, make decisions - be fully sentient?

Anyone who has spent any time around horses wouldn't doubt it for a second. But have you ever stroked a pig baggetts? They love it! Pigs can be trained to do most things that dogs do - because they are intelligent animals.

Of course this sets Freda Fretter and Furry Mama off on another course of worries as Baggy is not a vegetarian. She should be morally, but let's face it, with The Domestic Goddess providing her food it wouldn't exactly end well, not to mention the fact that she isn't particularly keen on vegetables! So yes baggetts, she does eat these cute animals.

But she needs to know that they've had a good life. That they've been treated well. In the case of pigs, that they've preferably been reared outside in one of the "pig cities" that are all over Suffolk - little houses full of straw surrounded by outdoor "gardens" where they can snuffle, socialise, roll in mud and generally be pigs. But Furry Mama knows she's a hypocrite, or rather just too soft! If she had raised the pig herself there is no way that she could eat him. If the menu says "local lamb" and she can see them bounding about in a field outside the restaurant, Baggy will choose something else. But they are bounding about in the fields. They may only have a short life, but at least they've been well treated.

But if they're not considered to be sentient? If legally they are, what then? inanimate? Why not raise them in small cages? Never let them see grass or the light of day? It wouldn't matter would it? They can't feel anything. Let's just reintroduce cock-fighting, bear-baiting, dog-fighting, hare coursing, otter hunting while we're at it shall we? Clever Bird despairs. If humans feel that they can treat other animals worse than they'd treat an apple, what hope is there that they'll treat each other with humanity?...............