Lions eating straw....is this possible?
by highdose 48 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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TD
I recall a JW telling me that.... "they" meaning scientists, had done study's on lions in zoo's and discovered that if they gave lions straw and grass to eat that the lions became very passive and no longer showed predator behavior???
No member of the cat family is capable of synthesizing taurine, which an essential amino acid that is not found in plant life. If you pick up any bag of dry cat food in the grocery store and read the ingredients, you will see that it has been fortified with taurine.
A vegetarian diet will kill a cat and well meaning vegetarians have actually done this. --Very sad. Cats have to have meat. and they don't really have any choice about it.
A favorite JW anecdote is the fact that the big cats in some zoos were fed a vegetarian diet during the Second World War when meat was scarce. However this was food prepared by man. ---Not so very different than the dry cat food you would feed a family pet. The mechanical breakdown had already been done by grinding and components which the cat can only get from meat (Like taurine) were added artificially. There are no wild species of plants that in any way even remotely approximate what these zoo cats were fed.
As a young man studying with the Witnesses, this ridiculous notion (along with the blood thing) was a deal-breaker for me. I've written about it here on JWN more than once:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/187882/1/JW-Science-Quote-1-22
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/141006/1/JW-Science-Quote-Of-The-Day-8-28
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jgnat
Well, duh. The lion laying down with the lamb is a metaphor. Not to be taken literally.
I have argued with my JW hubby about this seven times sunday, but there is no fighting blind faith. Emphasis on blind.
http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/09/25/hold-the-tuna-is-a-vegetarian-diet-safe-for-your-cat/1570/
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sabastious
I recall a JW telling me that.... "they" meaning scientists, had done study's on lions in zoo's and discovered that if they gave lions straw and grass to eat that the lions became very passive and no longer showed predator behavior??? Now they never explained who "they" were, or were these "study's" had been done or why based on these study's lions are not now fed grass etc Has anyone else heard this for real? or is it a JW urban myth?
Food eating patterns
Cats are obligate carnivores , and can survive without vegetation. Felines in the wild will usually hunt smaller mammals regularly throughout the day to keep themselves nourished. Domestic cats, however, are used to a relaxed lifestyle and, therefore, will eat even smaller amounts, but more regularly. Many cats will find and chew small quantities of long grass but this is not for its nutritional value, it is a purely mechanical function. The eating of grass triggers a regurgitation reflex to help expel indigestible matter, like hairballs and the bones of prey.-Sab
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Mary
I think this is what the Dub meant:
I recall a JW telling me that.... "they" meaning scientists, had done study's on lions in zoo's and discovered that if they gave lions straw and grass to eat smoke that the lions became very passive and no longer showed predator behavior.
There now. That makes far more sense doesn't it?
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TD
Another striking thing (to me) about this interpretation is that JW writers don't seem to understand the difference between hay and straw. They come off like a bunch of ignorant "city boys." (No offense to city boys....)
Hay is food. Straw is bedding.
Hay is fresh grass that has been cut and dried. It has nutritional value. Straw is the dead, biologically inactive stalks of cereal plants. It has zero nutritional value.
In agriculture, straw can used as a filler in bovine diets, but even the bull would starve to death if that is all he had to eat.
If you give cattle too much straw or if you don't chop it up fine enough, (It needs to be chopped into about 2" lengths) it results in impaction of the rumen, as any farm boy (Or girl) could tell you.
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Witness 007
I remember the Awake saying the teeth and claws were for ripping open "Husks" and Pinaeapples, coconuts etc.....of course most animal experts wet their pants with laughter.
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Open mind
Most JWs are unaware of the weasel words the WT quietly slipped into the Isaiah books when they came out. (Thanks AnonJW for providing the reference here.)
Therefore, from the standpoint of the Israelites, the lion was, in effect, eating straw like a bull, that is, doing no harm to them or their domestic animals.
"In effect" means it's now just symbolic. And "domestic" animals means the lions can chew up all the gazelles they want. But you have to be particularly tuned in to this issue, (like TD was) to catch it.
No big retraction necessary, but someone in writing covered up yet another bit of WT ridiculousness.
om
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TD
Open Mind:
Therefore, from the standpoint of the Israelites, the lion was, in effect, eating straw like a bull, that is, doing no harm to them or their domestic animals.
Interesting.....That interpretation was offered to them in a long letter by a JW veternarian; a man I personally know. I don't know if he's the only JW to have written such a letter, but in a nutshell, this was his argument:
(Keep in mind that he's a loyal JW...)
a. Jehovah would not have taken credit before Job for the ability of the lion and eagle to hunt if He had not intentionally designed it. That would be dishonest.
b. The restoration prophecies speak of the serpent eating dust, which is clearly metaphorical. Dust is not vegetation.
c. Like dust, straw is not a viable food source either
d. The restoration prophecies only say that domestic animals will be safe; (lamb, kid and calf = Sheep, Goat and Cow) they say nothing about wild forms of prey.
e. Vegetarian animals actually kill more humans than do carnivorous animals. (e.g. The African Cape Buffalo is considered the most dangerous animal on the continent.) Human safety in the New Order obviously would involve more than a return to vegetarianism.
f. Ultimately the interpretation contradicts the design equals a Designer argument. (He gave a bunch of examples from JW publications themselves of Creation arguments and examples of Jehovah's wisdom that violate a rigid, literal understanding of Genesis 1:30)
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Flat_Accent
Did anyone else get this reply from the Elders?
"Well, carnivorous animals in the new system will still eat meat. But they will be used to clean up dead bodies, they will do no hunting of their own."
A cop out or what?