FOOD FOR THOUGHT
"I'm sorry, Obie," Sandy said. "I guess I just don't like pithing cubs." "But we have to pith them," Oble said reasonably. "For their own sake, you know? It keeps them from being too smart. Can you imagine how horrible it would be for them if they grew up with some kind of rudimentary intelligence? So you'd know that you were alive only so you could be killed and eaten?" "They can't be that smart!" "Not after we pith them, no." Obie said smugly. "There has to be a better way! Can't the genesplicers arrange them so that they aren't intelligent?"
"Oh, Lysander," Obie sighed. "Do you imagine they didn't think of that? They keep trying. But it always spoils the taste of the meat."