From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:
Education
It occurred to me that math should be
part of the humane education curriculum.
For example, if there are 500 female and
500 male dogs in a town whose mayor kills 499 of
the females and 499 of the males, and the
surviving female and her female offspring have
two female and two male puppies twice a year,
who survive disease, accidents and the mayor’s
death squads to reproduce at the same rate, how
many dogs will there be after five years,
assuming that there is plenty of edible rubbish
for the dogs to eat and plenty of water to drink?
If the carrying capacity of the habitat
is 3,000 stray dogs and the mayor hires someone
to kill 2,500 of them each winter, how many dogs
will there be within six months?
Another question could be on rabies: if
70% of the dogs in town are vaccinated against
rabies, and a rabid dog is dumped on the edge of
the town, will rabies spread throughout the town?
If we can communicate to the next
generation the basic math of animal population
control and disease control, we will have much
less difficulty in advancing sterilization and
vaccination in the future, in place of the
present endless cycle of cruel and ineffective
killing.
–Robert Smith
<Robert.Smith@TangoFashions.com>
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