This rocks. Whatta freakin' incredible idea. Thanks so much for posting, Åsk. I'll spread this around to the "animal community."

Wait, so they're giving money to animals?

Only circus animals would have even the slightest idea of what to do with a bundle of cash: would they poop on it? Throw it at their rival? Build a nest from it? Ignore it?

If humanity was more noble before the injection of money and economy into its life, what of the animal kingdom? Isn't the potential commercialization of animal life just setting up a relativistic morality in which we think, that tasty yet endangered warthog I spy behind that bush is a money-grubbing jerk; hell, he makes twice as much as I do, with all those endorsements. Would it be right for me to kill him, eat him, and take the $6500 he's carrying? It isn't murder, after all. BANG!

My cat Peanut was in a national commercial where I think we must have spent at least $25 million in media. She didn't see a dime of it. I was totally hoping America would fall in love with her and she'd be my ticket to riches. I could be the one sleeping all day on the sofa while she's out making money. And I'm sure Pea would donate some of her income to no kill kitty shelters and other pro-cat causes.

LOL, Hugh. Good one!

i got so exited about this i posted a double in the blue - heh!

Oh, and there's an "MetaFilter in-page youtube viewer" these days? Really? Just goes to show ya how much I click on youtube links. :/ I like that my lnk was big-picture tho, that feature broke if I made it shorter.