Personal Response Examples
The first time I saw and heard this poem I felt disgusted and sad. I find the imagery describing the drowning of the kittens with their “soft paws scraping like mad” ( line 4) and their “tiny din” (line 4) to be especially pathetic. Then, to read of the disrespectful treatment of their tiny corpses as they are “sluiced /… on the dunghill, glossy and dead” (lines 8 and 9) I am actually disgusted and a bit angry. I know that animals are treated this way and that some people even find this treatment amusing and entertaining; personally, I find cruel treatment of defenseless animals to be cowardly and inhumane. I think Dan Taggert is a psycho with no conscience.
Emily
I know how I am supposed to feel. I’m supposed to feel sorry for these cats and dogs, but I don’t. I live on a farm and we shoot and drown our cats because too many of them are a threat to the farm. They just reproduce and inbreed, eat food that other animals should get, and they are wild and diseased. Better to die with a bullet in the head, or drowning in a bucket than starving to death or dying of rabies or something. I don’t hate animals, I am just practical about what is necessary on a farm.
Jason
I don’t feel any particular way about the poem. I don’t live on a farm and I don’t have pets, nor do I want any. I do understand that the poem is bringing up the debate about killing pests, and maybe it is trying to talk about beyond the farm. In real life, in society, we get rid of pests too – we send them to jail and in some places we execute them. This idea is more interesting than killing stupid cats and dogs. Is it right that one group of people gets to decide that another person doesn’t deserve to live anymore? Hitler thought it was fine, people who support the death penalty think it’s fine – do I? I’m not sure, but I definitely think that is a more important thing to write about than fuzzy little kittens dying!
Michael
Emily
I know how I am supposed to feel. I’m supposed to feel sorry for these cats and dogs, but I don’t. I live on a farm and we shoot and drown our cats because too many of them are a threat to the farm. They just reproduce and inbreed, eat food that other animals should get, and they are wild and diseased. Better to die with a bullet in the head, or drowning in a bucket than starving to death or dying of rabies or something. I don’t hate animals, I am just practical about what is necessary on a farm.
Jason
I don’t feel any particular way about the poem. I don’t live on a farm and I don’t have pets, nor do I want any. I do understand that the poem is bringing up the debate about killing pests, and maybe it is trying to talk about beyond the farm. In real life, in society, we get rid of pests too – we send them to jail and in some places we execute them. This idea is more interesting than killing stupid cats and dogs. Is it right that one group of people gets to decide that another person doesn’t deserve to live anymore? Hitler thought it was fine, people who support the death penalty think it’s fine – do I? I’m not sure, but I definitely think that is a more important thing to write about than fuzzy little kittens dying!
Michael