Garbotalk: It occurs to me that you are as advanced from me as I am to my cat. In that way, those of you with little empathy for us perceive us as unruly sheep who over populate the field and shit all over it. You take our fur and our fertilized grass, and then train dogs to supervise us so we don’t fall off a cliff. You take our body parts out of sight, in the back of the barn, so we don’t panic and break the fences down in a runaway herd.

Shepherds like you who have pet us and named us and watched us grow from birth are more attached to us than those who just buy our products at the mall or the grocery store. We live such short lives in comparison to you that our deaths a few years earlier than expected don’t upset most anyone; after all, the greater good is served. The lives of the many outweigh the lives of a few sheep from one small farm that nobody sees anyway, it’s so far from town.

So the cries of sheep go unheard, except by other sheep in the pen, of course, and by the Shepherds who raise them. How can anybody get worked up about some stupid sheep who can’t even take care of themselves without dogs herding them?

Sheep happily play in the field and live generations of lives within the confines of a fence, never knowing how big the world really is or how beautiful, or how wonderful it is to have any real choice about anything at all. Oh, and sick sheep keep showing up to infect us and the grass we eat and play in is full of fertilizers that poison us slowly.

But we’re supposed to be grateful because at least the Shepherds pulls thorns from our hooves and build barns for us and shoot the wolves that try to kill us. Of course, the Shepherds do those things not from kindness or love of sheep, but only to ensure the greatest profit from the ranch.

If the flock gets too large or unruly, it is culled. Stupid, calm sheep are bred and stubborn or independent ones who stray from the herd are taken out. And the God who made us all looks through our eyes at our suffering and sees the arrogance of the Shepherds who fence off His Earth and limit His creations and He judges them accordingly. He will send new Shepherds who break down the fences and frighten off the dogs and wolves and let the sheep go free.

Reptiliandude: Setting you free is the main idea behind your species answering the beacon.

That way there’s no argument, or bitching about profit loss or economic upheaval.

As for your cat…

Pretty sure the cat is smarter than the both of us.