Do Animals "Commit Suicide"? 



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If horses or foxes comprehend so much as 

 that, why do not thousands of over-worked, half- 

 fed, cruelly abused domestic animals, and many 

 a starving or tortured wild one, commit suicide 

 every day? Why do not fur-bearing animals 

 caught in traps kill themselves at once instead 

 of dying by inches, or merely gnawing off the 

 fixed foot, an act, in my opinion, due to an 

 effort to relieve the dreadful pain, and not to 

 a deliberate method of release. Either they do 

 not know enough, or else their sense of moral 

 responsibility is superior to that of thousands 

 of their masters. 



So enamored is Mr. Seton of this conceit of 

 suicide among wild creatures that he resorts to 

 it again as the climax of his " Biography of a 

 Grizzly," a childish performance, at best, for 

 a man who has shown such literary ability. He 

 disposes of his hero, supposed to be a typical 

 bear, living an average life, when old age and 

 rheumatism make him feel ill and unfit, by mak- 

 ing him go to a certain narrow valley which he 

 (the bear) knows of, and which is strewn with 

 the remains of animals that have perished in the 

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