Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/524/en

The domestic animal does not flee from the human being — it seeks his nearness with trust, it opens itself soul-wise toward him and, in fulfillment of this openness, awaits expectantly the counter-gift of care and devotion. How deeply the manner of this devotion imprints itself upon the domestic animal, how thoroughly human peculiarities rub off onto it, is shown by the saying: "Like master, like man." This soul-openness, extending to a kind of individually devoted comportment in comparison to the wild ancestral form, lays upon the human being today a responsibility of unsuspected magnitude. For the soul-open expectation of domestic animals is not fulfilled by mere emotional devotion, but only when this devotion gives occasion — however initial — for a knowledge of their essential nature. The domestic animal expects from human guidance not a self-referential, emotional devotion in the manner of a lap-dog mentality, still less a soulless utility, but a knowledge of its essential nature that, through deeds of love, gives the domestic animal