getting senile. He died a year later. You’d think a man would be ashamed to keep things like that around—but not Douglas. He likes them.” Alexander’s voice was tinged with contempt. “He knows they disgust me—so he parades them in. I could strangle that pup sometimes!”
“I wondered about it. I wouldn’t like to work for a man who permitted such things.”
“That was done before I took over. For the past three years there have been no dockings, no mutilations. I can’t see treating a helpless animal like that.”
“I feel better about it,” Kennon said. “I didn’t think you were that sort.”
“Understand me,” Alexander said. “I’m always opposed to senseless cruelty and waste—particularly when it’s dangerous. Docked Lani are the height of stupidity. Just because someone wants a pet that is an exact duplicate of a human being is no reason to risk a court action. Those Lani, and a few others whose tails have been docked, could be a legal bombshell if they ever left Flora.”
Kennon was jolted. He had been thinking of mental mutilation and Alexander had been talking physical. Naturally they would be dangerous property. Anyone attempting to sell a docked Lani would probably be thrown in Detention and charged with slave trading.
“Did you ever figure the cost of taking a legal action through our court system?” Alexander asked. “Even the small ones set you back four or five thousand, and a first-class action like a Humanity Trial could cost over a million. Grandfather found that out. Sure, there are differences between Lani and humans, but a smart lawyer can make them seem trivial until the final test and that would drag on for nearly two years until all the requirements were satisfied—and by that time the unfavorable publicity would drop sales to zero. The Family would be on my neck for lost dividends, and I’d lose much of the control I hold over them.
“Sure, it’s possible that prehensile tails could be produced by mutation, but so far as we know it hasn’t happened in human history. As a result, the tail serves as a trade-mark—something that can be easily recognized by anyone. So we sell them intact.” Alexander crossed his legs and settled back in his chair. “Shocks you, doesn’t it?”
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