[HPforGrownups] The Unforgivable Curses on animals?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 95147

Carol wrote:
>I've already given numerous opinions on the Unforgiveable curses and
>don't want to repeat them here, but I *don't* think that AK is an easy
>spell that WW farmers (if such people exist) would use to kill

There is a reference to someone having an eel farm. I think, given that
- we know that meat is eaten in the WW
- both the Statute of Secrecy and the existence of two separate currencies
make it highly unlikely that wizards buy their meat from muggle shops
then it follows that there are WW farmers.

>animals. I've already commented on MacNair's personal preference for
>using an axe, but the fact that axes are still available in the WW
>suggests that he's not the only one who uses them. Either a spell for
>killing animals is not common knowledge among wizard farmers (who
>probably aren't good at spells or they'd have a different job), or,

Perhaps a _little_ unfair! Suppose you are a WW farmer with a flock of
sheep. What sort of magics do you use? Well, you'd want a fertility potion
for mating time (plus a stamina potion for the ram!), a healthy pregnancy
potion for the ewes, a good health potion for the newborn lambs, a charm for
the fields to ensure that they are growing the right balance of grasses and
herbs, a "gentlemen, don't think about this one" charm for the male lambs,
plus charmed devices for shearing, spinning, milking, cheesemaking, and so
on, plus potions for any ailments, charms to keep away pests and foxes. Then
you need a hex of some sort for the slaughtering, plus charmed devices for
skinning, butchering, storing the meat, and transporting it to market. And
probably other things I haven't thought of, not being a farmer myself.

>    given the WW's apparent tolerance for pain and its treatment of
>house-elves, centaurs, etc., a humane method of killing animals is not
>high on their list of priorites, nor do I think it would occur to them
>to think of an Unforgiveable Curse as humane, however it may appear to
>us from our Muggle perspective. (Maybe they leave the farming to the
>Squibs, anyway?)

In the WW, the normal way of doing _everything_ is by magic. If they can do
something that way, then why not? That after all is what the magic's for,
and they've had thousands of years in which to work out the solutions. I
agree with you that they wouldn't use the AK because it's more humane - we
have no idea what sort of ethical debates go on on that kind of topic (and I
suspect we never will, it's too far outwith the storyline of the books)

>At any rate, given the potential for use of such a dangerous spell on
>humans, I very much doubt that the details of any Unforgiveable Curse
>would be available in a farmer's manual or any other book intended for
>the general WW public. Also, as Hermione points out, there's a point

I was indeed a bit flippant about the farmers' manual! But there may well be
guild-taught spells which the young people who don't go to Hogwarts get to
learn, and they would indeed include killing spells.

>As for young Severus shooting down flies, it's possible that he's only
>stunning them, as Ron stuns a wasp in OoP (I think). At any rate,
>despite his precocious mastery of curses, I doubt that AK was among
>them. (He certainly had not been taught it at Hogwarts with Dumbledore
>as headmaster.) Flies, however, are as much a household pest as

No, my reference to Snape was, as I've said, a flippant one, There is in any
case no reference to the "green flash" when he zaps the flies. Though I
think he would certainly have known about the existence of AK from his
associates, given that he was at school when Voldemort was terrorising the
WW and his friends were junior DEs.

Cheers

Ffred

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