Some of my own Thots in both Reply to your Post, and Others in this Thread.

Much as I Like / Love - Cats / Animals, and though I am Gentle and the Like,-

I'm of the View that in this Situation, He had the Cat and Other Animals Killed, in the Context and Reason of, the Overwhelming Imperatives of the Survival Situation.

Some of my Main Thoughts from Reading this Thread so Far, are;-

I Recall Reading once that Captain Cook, Ailing and Dying on one of his Voyages, (Deep in the Southern Pacific Antarctic Ocean), was Saved and eventually Revived!, Only by being Fed the Meat of their Beloved Little Dog! They were Critically Short on Other such Food, at the Time. Upon Sufficient Revival, Captain Cook asked how this was Done. And someone had to Reply that it was Due to his own Beloved Dog! The Captain Understood. Sure, I'm Sure he Regretted that it Had to be so! And that He'd Wished it could have somehow been Different! But he Readily Understood. This is the *Only* Thing which in that Situation, -Saved Captain Cook's Life!

A Cat or Other Animal *is* Food.

And a Cat or Other Animal Takes Up or Uses Food! Valuable, Limited, Food! Which you just may Not be Able to Spare!

On Expendability, Even People are, Rightly andor Wrongly, Expendable in certain Genuine "Lifeboat Situations". What of when our Soldiers have to Make a Raid in Vietnam or in Iraq? Or in the D-Day Invasion, when it Took X Number of Men getting Lost, Before their Bangalore Torpedo was Finally Able to Blow the Obstacle Wire? What is the Neccessary Choice involved in Triage All About? It's Totally Unfortunate and Regrettable! But What Else in these No Choice Situations would you Really Do? In Such Life or Death Situations, Sometimes such Choices are Unavoidable, and just Can't be Helped! People and/or Animals *Factually* are Expendable, in These Such Situations Only! The Only "Alternative" is to be Entirely Nobly Humane!, Never so Expendably Sacrifice One of your Number in such Situations. And End Up Having More or even All Die!, as a Result! One is Making *More* People Expendable!, by that Very Thinking and Process! And Unlike with the Earlier Expendability I speak of here, -These Extra Losses now!, are Unneccessary! This is Like Forest Fire Fighters Never Lighting a Neccessary Backfire! Out of "Ethically Ironic" of Justifications.

We Are to Have and Retain our Humanity as Far as All Possible! But Such Hard, Inescapable, Life or Death Choice Situations!, Sometimes will just Not Allow!, What's *Normally* the Most Noble and Humane of Preferences and Choices! I Don't Mean to Sound so Coldly Brutal. And I Don't Pretend or Claim that I'd Always be my Most Brave or Noble in Life myself! But These sorts of Tough Choices in Such Situations!, are just What They Are! In Short, It's just the Way it All Round Is!

It's somewhat similar to What Trump says on his commercial for his New Show, paraphrasing, -"It's Nothing Personal!, -It's just Business!" In this case, the Unfortunate Life or Death, Rational Judgement Call, "Business" of Such a Decision and Choice! There is a Certain Area of Similarity. And this commercial of his is one of the Things that Came to Mind, on my Reading this Thread.

People in Survival Situations *Don't* just Make such Decisions Lightly! This is No Time to Indulge any sort of a Suggested, Cold Blooded, Animal Killing Bloodlust! Do we Really Think that Shackleton was Entertaining any of 1,001 Niceties or Other Topics in Life?!, There in His and His Men's Survival Situation?! No!, His Thoughts were in Relation to that Latter!, Survival, Extrication, and Living Alone! Any Thoughts of Anything Else, were in Relation to That! -Of How They Bore on That! To just Cold Bloodedly Kill an Animal Purely to Do Such!, Had to be the Farthest Thing from!, and Most Non-Existant Thing In!, his Mind! Let's Remember to be "Survival Real"!, for a Moment here!

If Shackleton Didn't Want to Bother with the Animal, -Then *Why* Didn't he Want to Bother Himself with the Animal? Let's Ask ourselves That. Refer to the Paragraph(s) Before this one, for the Answer.

What Maggot has said here about the Benefit of 20 / 20 Hindsight certainly Applies here! It's so Easy to 20 / 20 or Monday Morning Quarterback here! And I Don't Think we can "De-Justify" Shackleton's Unfortunate but Neccessary Decision, -Even in Hindsight!

Even if Neccessary as I'm Sure it was, -They'd Have to Later Eat the Cat, Dog, and Three Pups. May as Well. And They Absolutely Needed To! Which I Think is a Foregone Conclusion that they Did.

I've Seen in either This or Another Shackleton Progran Lately, that it Involved More than just Those particular Animals. That it had eventually Gotten to the Point, Where They had to kill Many of their Sled Dogs as well. The Same Unfortunate Circumstances! The Same Regrettable but Neccessary Reasoning!

Thank God that a Great Many Ordinary Life Situations are Not Life or Death Survival as This One was. To just Kill Cats or Any Other Animals in Pure Cold Blood, Outside of Such Neccessary Situations, (Humane Livestock Slaughters and Such Excepted), is just Wrong, Unjustifiable, and Inexcuseable!

It's More Humane, to Quick Kill an Animal in a Shackleton Situation, than to just Let it Slowly Starve. And Along with Unneccessary Others of you to Boot!

Shackleton's "Not Wanting to Bother" with the Cat, Goes Back to the Cat's Presence Equaling a Taking Up of Part of the Valuable, Limited, Remaining Food Supply! Not Pure Out Not Wanting to Bother Per Se! What would you Do?, Really! -If you Didn't Have Any Access to Any Other Food!, For Thousands of Miles Around! Other than your Animals, and What Little Food as you Do have with you? It's Easy to Talk and Make After the Fact Judgements from Up here in Europe or the U.S.A.! But What would Any of us!, in a Real No Food Situation, -Really Do?!

I Guess the Same can Go for "Lifeboating" and Cannibalization Decisions. Here I would Think we Shud Still Go by our Moral and Ethical Compass. And Do Cannibalization Only After someone has Naturally Passed On. Perhaps even if that Means More in the Party may First Die by Other Natural Causes, within the Survival Situation. Than Otherwise. I Hate to say it, but an Animal at least in this way, is Less and Different!

And Finally, I think of my Own Two Cats, as I Think these Situational Thoughts, and Write This. What They might Think and Feel!, if They ever Knew that I Thought This! In such Real, Push Comes to Shove!, Life or Death, Survival Situation! But That Still Doesn't Change these Situational Realities there One Bit!

Shackleton Unfortunately Still Had to Do What he Still Had to Do!, -There in His Real Make It or Break It!, Life or Death, Survival Call and Situation! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Craig[/email]