[Beth Curran]

Mike Blackwood wrote:
as such we respond to the
> "cuteness" of seals because their faces remind us of common pets.

True story:  the large contract research corporation where I used to work 
used the developing embryos of african clawed frogs (a fully aquatic frog) 
for toxicity research instead of mice, because the animal rights activists 
didn't give a * about amphibians.  Now, I personally thought the frogs were 
way cuter than mice, but apparently the "mammalists" don't.