Rats and Wolves
Do you like rats? Only as pets or not at all, right? What about wolves? What, you only like tame pets like Retrievers and Chihuahuas? Turns out, you are not the only one. Many people are afraid and disgusted by rats and wolves. I mean, of course, right? They’re pests; they carry diseases and get into your food… Who would not fear them? Who wouldn’t be disgusted? The answer is obvious: those who know what they are talking about.
Rats are, indeed, very hated creatures. Aaron Smith agrees, stating “Rats are the most annoying pests. They bite everything they find. They spread a lot of diseases. Most of our lives we have hated rats…” (1). They get into your house and defecate everywhere, eating your food and stealing your sleep. Sure, pets are not a problem; you just keep them in their cage. But what if that pet got out? It would certainly stay true to its nature and forage, chew, and poop. Would you then kill it? Would you give it away? No. You would simply catch it, clean up after it, and try to keep a better eye on it.
Wolves. The beasts that haunt your dreams… are terribly misunderstood. Wolves, who were on this planet before humans, were hunted down, exterminated. All because of fear, disgust, and ignorance. But do you know where that all comes from? Think back to the plague. Everyone was dying, so much and so fast that they couldn’t all be burned. So those piles of dead bodies were a buffet for wild wolves. “In doing so, whole generations developed a taste for human flesh and likely began viewing us as prey items. No doubt horrified…the highly superstitious people began spinning tales…” (Devlin 1) Wolves are opportunists, you see. They commit cannibalism, they scavenge… They do whatever they can to survive. So they ate the dead bodies, and for generations thereafter they had a taste for human flesh.
Still, they would rather not tangle with live humans. To this day they would rather not. In fact, you would have a better chance of getting...