>>ack, I'll have you know that for years my home was very nearly a coon sanctuary. Coons slept in my chimney in the summer. Coons ate my garbage when berry season was late in coming. And coons polished off about 5 pounds of Japanese carp in my garden pond. When it comes to coons, I have nothing to be ashamed of.<<

I beg to differ. Where is your Mudcat thread protesting the cruel and barbaric hunting of them with dogs, which is little more than a blood sport where dog owners sic their own animals upon these raccoons to watch both animals be injured and the raccoons eventually torn apart?

As you may have gathered, this is very personal to me. You need to clean up your own house before you call my father a barbarian. Do you eat meat? Do you wear leather?

The mere fact that you are communicating on a computer indicates that you enjoy the fruits of our industrial society. You think no animals were harmed in the mining of the materials of your computer? You think that no harm is done in delivering electricity to your house?

OUR SOCIETY HURTS ANIMALS. WE COMPETE WITH ANIMALS FOR SPACE AND RESOURCES. If one modern, industrial, man is a barbarian, all are. These are facts of life. Cast the log out of your own eye, before you point out the mote in mine.