25th January 2006, 1:59 PM
I mean, Yellystone... er...
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/ne...olves.html
According to this, people walking their unvaccinated pets in Yellowstone are spreading diseases among the wolf population in the park, resulting in a drop in survival for the pups there.
This basically stems from two things: either they are too cheap to vaccinate the dogs (not likely, considering poor people tend not to go on vacations like these), or it's just part of the nation-wide histaria regarding vaccinations in general. People actually seem to think it's harmful. They don't get what a vaccination actually is. It's creating an immune system response so your body can fight the disease when the stronger varieties invade the system! Our bodies, when you get right down to it, are simply piles of chemicals organized into a complex series of machines based on programmed data. The line between natural and unnatural is arbitrary at best, and people need to realize that whatever their definition of natural and unnatural, it has no bearing at all on what is healthy or unhealthy for a person. In fact, things you just pick out of nature, they tend to be complex enough they are more likely to do harm as they haven't been carefully broken down to a level where the human body's reaction to it can be safely predicted. You want natural? The bubonic plague, snake venom, poison ivy, and various birth defects such as heart murmurs are natural by most definitions of the term. Indeed, certain supplements that claim to produce chemicals our body naturally creates can really do harm. The word "herbal supplement" should never be taken to mean "no side effects", no matter what some snake oil salesman will tell you. ANYTHING powerful enough to have a physical effect on the body is powerful enough to have a negative physical effect.
Well, rant mode off. I'm just trying to point out that if that is the reason these wolf pups are dying, it would seem that the strange attempt to "return to nature" in such an ignorant fasion has actually damaged it in the process.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/ne...olves.html
According to this, people walking their unvaccinated pets in Yellowstone are spreading diseases among the wolf population in the park, resulting in a drop in survival for the pups there.
This basically stems from two things: either they are too cheap to vaccinate the dogs (not likely, considering poor people tend not to go on vacations like these), or it's just part of the nation-wide histaria regarding vaccinations in general. People actually seem to think it's harmful. They don't get what a vaccination actually is. It's creating an immune system response so your body can fight the disease when the stronger varieties invade the system! Our bodies, when you get right down to it, are simply piles of chemicals organized into a complex series of machines based on programmed data. The line between natural and unnatural is arbitrary at best, and people need to realize that whatever their definition of natural and unnatural, it has no bearing at all on what is healthy or unhealthy for a person. In fact, things you just pick out of nature, they tend to be complex enough they are more likely to do harm as they haven't been carefully broken down to a level where the human body's reaction to it can be safely predicted. You want natural? The bubonic plague, snake venom, poison ivy, and various birth defects such as heart murmurs are natural by most definitions of the term. Indeed, certain supplements that claim to produce chemicals our body naturally creates can really do harm. The word "herbal supplement" should never be taken to mean "no side effects", no matter what some snake oil salesman will tell you. ANYTHING powerful enough to have a physical effect on the body is powerful enough to have a negative physical effect.
Well, rant mode off. I'm just trying to point out that if that is the reason these wolf pups are dying, it would seem that the strange attempt to "return to nature" in such an ignorant fasion has actually damaged it in the process.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)