Stop acting like a human being!

   Although I often judge people that have pets, especially dogs, in a negative way when they are in public, I do tend to think of animal behavior as being more 'natural' than human-animal behavior; it's really just their association with human beings that disturbs me. I see these pets as enslaved by human beings, who fulfill their basic food and shelter needs, and who, in my reading of them, rob them of their nature, of their animality.

   When I am taking my regular walk in the early morning hours around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, I often see ducks and geese engaged in what I assume to be territorial battles, chasing and nipping at one another, and it all seems very natural and appropriate. In fact, it bothers me when people try to intervene in these scuffles; I resent them trying to impose their humanity on their behavior. To me, when animals appear mean to their fellows, they are really engaged in something very organic and appropriate, but people are trying to impose their own sense of normalcy to their behavior. 

   When it comes to human interaction though, I become very suspect, and words like 'motive' and 'judgment' enter my mind. I suddenly wish people would act more 'human'.