“One thought followed another, out of relaxation and into exasperation: the idiocy of animal activists, the bad influence of Disney cartoons, and the gullibility of the Bambi-loving American public. "Walt Disney did us in," he grumbled. "Before all those movies, people looked at animals differently." He snorted with disgust, mulling over that trend of animated movies populated by big-eyed deer and big-bad hunters that terrify defenseless animals. Bambi, Thumper, Flower the Skunk, Gerone sees them all as trouble, part of the reason that we live in a country filled with people who seem only to see animals as cuddly.
He put down his wine glass, watching the clear liquid slosh against the edges. Before this century, he points out, most Americans lived on farms. They butchered hogs themselves, took chicken eggs, milked cows, ate the animals that surrounded them. They shot wild animals to protect their herds, to add to their food supplies. Now, the country's population has concentrated in cities. Hunting is largely a recreational sport; farmers are in decline. People are sur- rounded instead by pets, sleepy cats, playful dogs, pet rats and guinea pigs. "There are kids out there who think meat is born cellophane wrapped," complained Gerone. How can they identify with the idea that animals—the ones they play and feed and sleep with-—should be available as tools, for research?”