Shirley MacLaine has written a book with her dog. Out on a Leash (a take off of MacLaine’s earlier work Out on a Limb) purports to be co-authored by MacLaine and her “humanimal” Terry. An interviewer asked why she hadn’t collaborated with pets before. She said she hadn’t yet been ready to listen. (Parade Magazine, Dec. 14, 2003).
On MacLaine’s website, her dog Terry has a statement of introduction to the section “Pet Pages.” In it, the dog purportedly says this: “Hi. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Terry. Shirley is my human Mom. …Mom asked me to create a section of her website that focuses on animals. I thought this was a wonderful idea.”
Lest we think the suggestion of a talking and writing dog creating a website at his owner’s suggestion is intended to be a joke, this sentence is included, in a plug for “their” book: “Mom and I collaborated on a book, which is titled Out on a Leash. It is a serious book that looks at the world through her eyes and through mine.” Ms. MacLaine’s work with her Terrier is proposed to be a “serious book.”
Further, the dog allegedly writes, “We did an audio book, too, that is available on CD or audio cassette. Mom reads the whole thing of course, but she acted my role while we recorded it.” Please excuse the sarcasm when I note that it was helpful that Shirley “acted” (i.e. read) the dog’s part of the script. One might think that a talking, writing, website-building dog could and would do that for himself.
A lot of people will probably buy this book and read it for a good dose of amusement. Sadly, though, some will take it as it is styled–seriously. Those folks will believe (or already believe) that animals have the same abilities and functionality as do all humans. They therefore object to eating any sort of meat. They object to scientific experiments that provide technological advances for the health of mankind, if those experiments involve animals. The consequences of their reasoning (if it can be called such) are exceedingly far-reaching.
Christians everywhere wish and pray that the truth could get publication as far and wide as this book and its publicity. Using good, sound reason, men can evaluate the claims of the Bible as being God’s Word and see that there is no other adequate explanation. Then, in that Word they will read the truth of the matter. Animals were not made in the image of God. Nor did men evolve from the lower life forms. Animals cannot talk, think, reason, nor creatively manipulate the world around them, including the construction of words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into chapters of books. The record of truth reminds that God made all the animals, then crowned creation with man. Man was the only created being made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). Man was given dominion over all the other beings, a fact illustrated by the first man being given the privilege of naming all other such life (Genesis 2:19-20).
It is not surprising that Ms. MacLaine, with her history of New Age beliefs, would come up with such a work. But, it is saddening that there is such a “serious” market for such.
