Raising the Peaceable Kingdom: What Animals Can Teach Us about the Social Origins of Tolerance and Friendship

Chapter ONE Starting the Peaceable Kingdom Once I had made the decision to try to create a peaceable kingdom, my first challenge was to make sure all five species entered our home as close to the same moment as possible. I didn't want territoriality to be a factor in how the animals related to one another. The more quickly I could find all the right baby animals, the more successful the bonding process was likely to be, with one another and with us. I did not want one animal to be there weeks before another and to claim territory or seniority. I wanted the playing field to be more or less level. Speed was therefore of the essence. I had to get a puppy, a kitten, a chick, a bunny, and a baby rat within as short a time period as possible. From where should I get them? Ideally, I wished to rescue animals who needed a home, not purchase them. The principle was that if I could guarantee a "good" life to animals who would otherwise have a not-so-good life, my taking the animals into my home could be justified. We don't want animals bred when there are many waiting for a home. Each animal bought is one fewer animal adopted. In America, this would undoubtedly have been easy to achieve. For every species there is a group of dedicated people who rescue its animals from abusive situations. Indeed, for dogs there is a rescue group for each and every breed. There are people devoted to rescuing cats, rabbits, and chickens and expanding public awareness of what wonderful companions these animals can make. You do not need to buy any of these animals in the United States and should never do so without compelling reasons. In New Zealand, however, such rescue groups do not yet exist. Perhaps it is simply too small a country. For example, in New Zealand there are no farm sanctuaries where rescued animals can live out their lives free of the prospect of being killed for food, whereas such places are becoming more common in the United States, in Canada, and in Great Britain (I list many of them at the end of my book The Pig Who Sang to the Moon). Nor was there a group that could help me rescue a rat or a rabbit from a laboratory and its perhaps cruel, pointless, or unethical experiments. But in New Zealand we do have the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and from them you can adopt dogs and cats and sometimes other animals. So one sunny, cloudless Saturday in January, our whole familymy wife, Leila, and our sons, Ilan, seven, and Manu, twodrove to their adoption center near the airport in Auckland. I told the director, Bob Kerridge, what I was looking for and why. They could find me a dog and a cat, he told me. As for the rats, we were lucky, because just that day two had come in. "Here, have a look," the woman behind the counter told us, and pulled out two seven-week-old hooded domestic rats.* They were mostly white but had what looked like a dark brown hood over their facesa naturally occurring fur color that humans select for because it is considered attractive. "They are in dire need of a home. Rats are still not that popular here, and unless we find them a home soon, they will have to be euthanized." Ilan was enchanted with them and needless to say appalled at the fate that might well await them. "They are so cute! Look at their little fingernails," he said. Sure enough, their tiny paws had delicate, shiny fingernails. Children immediately notice how much like us even a rat is, whereas adults focus on the "yuck" factor. (See page 14 for a photo of Rebecca with Kia on her shoulder and Moana in her arms.) Leila, for example, noticed their long, snakelike tails. One of the rats hopped onto Ilan&amMasson, Jeffrey Moussaieff is the author of 'Raising the Peaceable Kingdom: What Animals Can Teach Us about the Social Origins of Tolerance and Friendship' with ISBN 9780345466136 and ISBN 0345466136.