Desire to Survive

[Heather Glude]

No: HPFGUIDX 29955


On Sunday, November 25, 2001, at 11:26 AM, madaboutsteps at barclays.net 
wrote:
> Surely dementors can also sense animals if they had a soul?  if they
> had changed in to an animal to survive surely they are at risk as
> Lupin tells us that they feed on the human "desire to survive"
> amongst other things

I hadn't really thought about this, but now that I have, I wonder why 
dementors don't feed on a normal animal's desire to survive. The 
survival instinct is one of the strongest out there, and possessed by 
virtually every kind of animal. Humans in general may have less desire 
to survive, being the only species that knowingly sacrifices its life 
for a cause. Sure, there are examples of animals who risk themselves, or 
actually die trying to protect their offspring and such - be we tend to 
be very touched by these stories. The animals seem more human.

So, about those dementors? Maybe they do feed on animals - or maybe they 
only feed on the desire to survive, as triggered by their fearsome 
presence? Maybe animals have evolved a complete lack of fear of them, 
protecting themselves from being drained? Or maybe, like Muggles, 
animals don't see them, and therefor their survival instinct isn't 
triggered?

Heather