ON ANIMALS

on animals

sara yossef

Domesticated animals have been procured to serve a utilitarian purpose to our capitalistic society. e wild oxen and bu alo were whittled down to the modern-day heifer, and we’ve made wolves our living baby dolls. One animal that is of no utility to modern humanity is the frog. While it can be argued that the poison dart frog can be used in a hitman scenario, or perhaps the psychedelic frogs you lick can be of some bene t, but apart from that, the average bullfrog merely exists in our world.

It was frogs that dictated the rst eleven years of my life. e creek in my backyard was teaming with the amphibious beasts, so much so it became a problem my parents were itching to x. But they couldn’t as they saw how much happiness the frogs brought me. I captured them, named them, built them aquariums in my room, subsequently lost a few of them in my home, and retrieved their petri ed bodies months later, and stored them in a Ziploc bag underneath my bed.

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e frogs taught me lessons that elementary school failed to show me. ey taught me the horror of amplexus and the crude performance in which eggs were fertilized, the natural cycles of life and death, and not to be afraid of insects, or dirt, or mud. It’s merely a part of our environment.

Every minute I was away from school, I was stationed at the freshwater that streamed in my backyard. I stared at the frogs from 3:10 when the school bus dropped me o until my mom called me in for dinner at 6. I then went to my room to read about the various species that populated northeast Ohio. I ended my nighttime routine with frog sounds on tape, to lull me into a swampy slumber.

It’s been a while since I’ve spent time outside with the frogs. I now function within normal society, not as a one-dimensional frog addict, but hopefully as a fully realized person. Was conforming to a material society overall bene cial for my character, or did it make me another clone? Why should I spend my life in pursuit of knowledge if I can spend it in eternal bliss with the frogs.

I don’t think we were put here to domesticate

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animals, but perhaps they are a necessity in un-domesticating us. ese grotesque slimy forms remind me that life is weird and exciting and unpredictable.

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