The "mixed community" I found the most interesting to read. One of the sections Midgley focused on was parent and child behaviors. I loved reading this section. Midgley was saying how kids love animals, and animals love kids. An animal will tolerate a lot more from a child than they would from an adult. For example, a kid could pull on their tale, or jump on them, put their fingers in their mouth and the animal might get annoyed but will more and likely not cause any harm to that child. If an adult did the same thing, then that could be a different story. Across the species barrier a cat recognizes the child as a kitten, even though the child is much bigger than it is, but it treats it as if it was and this is where the bond comes in.
Midgley was saying how children have a natural relationship with animals. In our culture the passion we have torwards animals is much less as an adult than a child. Adults still love, play and take care of their animals, but not as much as a child would. I agree with this completely, when I was young I loved dogs and cats, but now I do not have any nor would I care to ever have one. When I was young I always wanted to have both dogs and cats. Maybe this changed because I am allergic to cats, but still I am a little scared of animals. Back then this was not the case.
Midgley also talked about how animals do have emotions due to exploitation which requires sympathy. To exploit an animal we have to recognize it's pain. We humans put our interests above any other animals, so this is hard for us to see sometimes. We really know that they are not completely different from us. I believe that they do have some kind of feelings, but still it is nothing like ours. For example, when an animals owner is upset that animal can sense it and will act differently, but I do not believe that animals can grieve over things like us humans. We have much deeper feelings than they do.
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