The Wild World of Animal Prosthesus

When I think of animal prosthetics I think of appendages meant for your regular household pet.  However upon reading this article you learn more about prosthetics made for wild animals than the average cat or dog, along with how these improvements in prosthetics for animals are improving prosthetics for humans.  This article while like the last is trying to appeal to a more broad audience being in TIME magazine, which is read by many kinds of people; it also points out a different side of the products being developed for animals.  The prosthetics being developed for animals, both wild and domestic, prove to be useful in creating better prosthetics for veterans that are coming home from war. 

            The usefulness of what’s being developed for animals here makes this article have a different tone, a tone that’s less factual and more hopeful for what this technology can do in the future rather than some of the ridiculous inventions at the World Pet Expo.  I found it entertaining though that neuticles were mentioned again at the very end of the article and were even made fun of a little bit because of being merely invented to help a dog’s self-esteem.   While the anecdote at the end of the piece is nice, the real meat of the article is focused more on prosthetics created for wild animals.  This field itself creates more challenges to make prosthetics for creatures of all shapes and sizes verses the average dog or cat, which are very similar to each other.  This field is budding right now.  Not many people have ever tried to create a foot for an elephant before and shows how people can care about animals beyond just the ones that are in the home. This connection people can feel with any animal they have contact with.  People wouldn’t create a leg for a kangaroo or a tail for a dolphin if they didn’t care for the animal on some level.