I was kind of spooked when I read that a form of fungi sedates cutleaf ants with a marijuana equivalent and when they’re blissed out the fungi pierces them with an upright stalk in order to fertilize itself in the surrounding environment.  It reminded me of doping  victims prior to rape.  Devious, worse than sneaky!  But there, I’m anthropomorphizing  again. This information was in the new book,  Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures,  by   Merlin Sheldrake.          

This week I read in The Week that a Maine restaurateur gets her lobsters stoned before boiling them alive.   Their meat was deemed “sweeter,”  because they were more relaxed and less stressed. (Until…)

Why does this bother me so!  Both manipulations. ..brainless and non-brainless.  Getting one’s defenses down in order to kill it.  I’m reminded of “nature red in tooth and claw”…Too sentimental, I guess, when millions of refugees are homeless and starving.  Concrete examples, and humans, are more bothersome…And if children and babies are involved…!