Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:05:28 GMT From: "anonymous4371@juno.com" Subject: THE BAZAAR - Chapter 14 (Gay; Authoritarian) Chapter 14 SLAVES, MODERN MEDICINE, AND PHARMACOLOGY As Chad headed the Range Rover for the long trek home, Australian National Radio, his favorite radio station, was just coming on with their "Contemporary Living in Australia" program. Today's broadcast featured Dr. Broderick Castleberry, a medical researcher at the University of Melbourne, Dr. Geoffrey Bruce, Chair of the Veterinary College at the University of Brisbane, and Mr. Nevor Smyth, President of the Australian Association of Slave Owners. "Today's topic is Slaves, Modern Medicine, and Pharmacology,'" the show's host said as he introduced each of the show's guests along with their long list of credentials. "Mr. Smyth, why don't you start us out," the host prompted. "By way of introduction, gentlemen, let's get us started with the reality that with over 1.5 million slaves in the country now, it behooves slaveholders to learn all they can about maximizing their considerable investment or at least enhancing their properties' performance through judicious use of modern medical and pharmacological interventions. For example, we know slaves purchased for athletic teams a few years back were heavily injected with various steroids for enhanced performance, that both sex slaves and slave studs were often fed Viagra and related drugs built right into their slave chow to up the number they could service each day, that draft slaves were given adrenaline shots to increase their energy and strength, and that male house slaves were frequently given shots of estrogen to make them less aggressive. All of this was originally suggested by the medical establishment, Dr. Castleberry. "And, Dr. Bruce, slave veterinarians, when slavery became established in this country, routinely castrated male slaves not responding to their basic training, circumscribed slave circumcision and tit and nose ringing as something only they could do, and even something as routine as branding was proscribed as best done with veterinarians. Yet, all this seems so archaic now. "Pumping steriods into slave animals on athletic teams has proved to be a disaster. Although the hormones produced enhanced performance temporarily and led to spectacular body builds, the slaves treated generally died within a few years of organ collapses. This practice destroyed their owner's investment, it lowered their slaves' sperm counts so they couldn't reproduce, and, given in the amounts that were used, the slaves ultimately proved too aggressive to be engaged in any sort of team sport activity and generally had to be close- shackled at all times. Furthermore, the sports fans turned against the whole idea in that they viewed the players as chemical freaks rather than the type of player the sport was designed for to start with. "Football games involving players attacking each other at the throat with their teeth, of players bursting blood vessels right in front of the spectators, and coaches having to use electric prods and razor-tipped bull whips to control the players at all just wasn't much fun to watch anymore and certainly detracted from the game itself. Before all this, of course, a good athlete slave could be played for a number of years, then retired to stud, and his or her owner could look forward to a reasonable return on their investment over the years. But steroid injections ruined all that. "Sex performance enhancement pharmaceuticals also backfired when using them on slaves purchased for the sex trade or for the breeding farms. Although it did lead to almost constant erections if the dosage was high enough and certainly enabled them to perform sex on command almost instantly, there was a long-term disadvantage as was soon discovered. Heavy use of the drugs led to quick burn out' for a sex slave. A slave purchased for brothel use, for example, worked well for the first six months or so, but with continued use became old before their time' often unable to perform at all (despite increased dosages of the drugs) after a few years. Once again, owners watched their investments depreciate far more rapidly than if they had let nature alone. In addition, there were increasing reports of liver failure with long-term use of the drugs. "The same point can be made for adrenaline shots with draft slaves. Sure, it increased their energy and strength potential in the short haul. But, in the long haul, draft slaves so medicated burnt out fast and their work life,' as we generally refer to it, was reduced from a good 20-30 years under good feed and a gentle whip to a mere 5-10 years in cases of daily or even twice daily adrenaline administration, even in moderate doses. At first, owners were excited by performance increases of 10 to 15% with the medicated slaves, but with the rapid aging process that occurred, their long term investment was cut by a good 50% with all the slave turnover involved in that particular drug program. "Lastly, the surgical removal of the testes for household slaves, presumably as a method to keep domestic slaves more on task' and more controllable once freed of the male sex drive, (a popular method going back at least to the ancient Egyptians, I might add), also destroys that property's breeding potential, often leads to weight control and muscular maintenance problems, and is really unnecessary as a control technique in view of modern slave training procedures. Worst of all, as we all know now, outside of the market for mistresses seeking a male slave to bed down who can't impregnate them, it depreciates a slave's resale value seriously. Whereas you might think of a sterile male slave as being most desirable for a lusty mistress still in her reproductive years, vasectomizing the chosen bed buck is a much less drastic solution to that problem but with some loss in resale value, of course . And, if you want to retain full reproductive capacity with your male slave, the female being serviced can easily resort to modern birth control techniques. "These are just some of the problems evident to all slaveholders today. And I haven't even mentioned the costs of these procedures which every slaveowner must consider for prudent economic management. Steriods are expensive, sex enhancement drugs don't come cheap even when buying them in bulk, adrenaline is expensive and its takes time to give slaves the number of shots necessary, time which could be spent working them at their tasks. "A prudent slaveowner must always weigh the cost of maintenance vs. replacement. As slaves get cheaper, the cost of pharmaceutical enhancement may simply not be worth it - it may be far cheaper to get what you can out of what you have on hand without a lot of expensive drugs and simply replace them when the time comes. For example, an adrenaline enhanced draft slave does work harder and longer, but so does a slave under a good whipmaster who knows how to extract the maximum from the animals under his direct supervision. True, he exhausts a slave in a shorter period of time, but not nearly as much as adrenaline injections do. In both cases you have to replace the slave earlier with fresh stock, but the cost advantage has proven to clearly reside with a moderate overseer, good diet, clean sleeping facilities, AND a slave that will last the expected working life span before being shipped to the rendering plant. "One last point, gentlemen, and I will shut up and give you a chance to talk," Mr. Smyth chuckled. "As you well know by now, it didn't take long, despite what all you vets claimed, that almost all owners could circumcise any slave stock on hand in a matter of minutes with little difficulty as long as they have a good sharp knife and a jar of antibiotic cream handy to put on the cut afterwards for several days. Owners also quickly discovered they could brand their new possessions just as well as any trained veterinarian and, with some sensible precautions, with no higher a fatality or infection rate than with a professional touch. And most anyone with a common knowledge of animal husbandry can castrate a slave just as easily as they can their hogs, their horses, or their bulls. Studies show that infection and fatality rates are no higher between slaves where these procedures were done by professionals' and slaves where these procedures were done down in the slave barn by their owners. The exception might be where brandings, castrations, etc., are done in highly unsanitary conditions, where no antibiotics are utilized afterwards to control infection, and where the cutting instruments have not been sterilized beforehand. But, gentlemen, slaveholders aren't that stupid anymore - they have a big investment to protect, and protect it they do!" "You've certainly done your homework, Mr. Smyth," Dr. Broderick Castleberry said pleasantly. "I don't disagree with one thing you've pointed out. The medical establishment, along with other professions, went into this slavery thing fairly naively, failing to look closely at the treatment cost factors as opposed to stock replacement costs, as you pointed out so well, Nevor. But we physicians quickly got away from that and began concentrating on disease control within the slave herds and low-dosage use of psychoactive drugs, some of which have proven useful and some which haven't panned out so far. "Let's start with disease control. Where I think we have made the biggest contribution to slaveowners is in working with them to contain non-curable conditions such as AIDS, cancer, etc, or disease entities where the treatment is more expensive than stock replacement. In the case of non-curable sexually-transmitted diseases, for example, we have recommended immediate separation of the diseased stock from the rest of the herd, placing them into herds made up of like kind, and programs to extract as much work as possible for as long a period of time before they terminate and without infecting any disease-free stock. Most slaveowners have followed our suggestions well and the problem has been well contained. Of course, diseased stock is a great loss of your investment, but at least we can save the whole herd from the same problem. "Similar progress has been made in treatable diseases. We have devised an easy-to-use computer model where a slaveowner can determine whether the treatment will cost more than the slave's worth utilizing an actuarial estimate of that animal's probable work life. If not, then snuffing is recommended rather than the investment in appropriate drugs, physician consultation, etc. If so, the slaveowner can be assured his investment in treatment is paying off over the long-haul. "Another area in which the medical community has been of help is with what we call low-dosage pharmaceutical help in slave adaption and training where a little chemical help has often proven its worth. Specifically I'm talking about psychoactive drugs like Prozac and other anti-depressants which, properly monitored, have been of great worth in helping the newly enslaved adjust to their new circumstances and more readily accept the training procedures necessary for them to contribute in their new role. With bred slaves this is unnecessary, of course, but until all stock is coming off the breeding farms, I feel we have contributed a great deal in this troublesome area. Actually, they're using 15 or 20 different chemical formulations in this area now, all fairly cheap and all easily worked into the slave's diet without them even knowing it. None of us like to see an animal suffer unnecessarily, and if a little low-cost chemical in their diet will help, all of us see it as a good thing to do - especially since it's a low cost alternative to other harsher methods of breaking' an animal to their new reality." "And we slaveholders are grateful for that contribution," Mr. Smyth interjected. "It's hard to find a training facilities where the drugs you're talking about aren't in full usage, primarily because, as you know better than the rest of us, Dr. Castleberry, the low dosages utilized have been found to have little to no harmful side effects to date." "We'll keep our fingers crossed, Nevor. With drugs, it's hard to predict the really long-term effects, but, to date, we have no evidence of anything really serious. It's non- addictive, no liver or kidney problems we've been able to detect so far, and it greatly increases productivity rather than cause any downtime." "What about the veterinarian's viewpoint, Dr. Bruce?" the radio show host asked. "Mr. Smyth is right about veterinarian's first viewing animal castration as their exclusive province., along with simple minor surgical procedures such as trimming a penis, ringing tits, notching ears, etc. But old-time livestock managers laughed at us in that they had been successfully doing those things with animals for thousands of years, long before there was such a thing as veterinary science. Slaves are just another form of livestock, of course, and are in no way different biologically than the livestock Australians have dealt with for centuries. So we quickly retreated from such mundane procedures and have since concentrated on where the profession can be of real help: consultation on health concerns with large-scale slave owners; research into new drugs and/or minor surgical procedures that might be of help in the management of slaves; advising on nutrition, shelter, and appropriate restraints for various types of slave occupations, and development of drugs and procedures for handling large herd infestation of curable diseases and viral infections. As we all know, slaves, like other livestock, are usually kept in large pens, are worked within gangs or teams, and are often in close proximity to each other in that they are more efficiently supervised that way. The downside of that efficiency is that diseases spread fast under those conditions and must be treated long before things get out of hand and before an owner runs the risk of seeing his whole herd gone almost overnight. "That's why, in conjunction with some large scale slaveholders, like Australian Agriculture and the Bristol Mining Consortium, we work on preventative drugs that can be worked into the slaves' water supply, herd isolation procedures, chemical spraying within the slave pens, and cheap, economical disease screening procedures that don't interfere significantly with their work output. Examples I would like to point out are the new infrared temperature monitors where you just need to point a thermal reading device at any given slave and get an accurate body fever warning, saliva swabs that change color if a slave is infected with a particular condition, and so forth -all procedures that can be done with the slave at his assigned task, or at least on his way to or from the assigned task. "I also think we have been helpful in setting up appropriate models for proper sanitation in the slave pens and disinfecting procedures for the pens as well as the slave's bodies themselves. For direct contact with a slave, such as surgery, personal diagnosis, etc., the slaveowner must take the fees involved and weight it against the future value of the slave. In many cases, veterinary intervention is not cost effective - it's better to either work the slave as he is and get what you can out of him with a heavy whip; rest him and see what happens (at least for a short period of non-productivity); or simply cut your losses and sell his body to the rendering plant in that he may still have a few salvageable organs or at least a hide worth tanning. In other cases, however, like a slave in his late teens or his early twenties who has a good immune system and a good 25 years of productivity left in him if he survived, it may be wise to invest in veterinary services on the grounds the professional services rendered can easily be recouped over the years of work left in the slave's body. "To emphasize how useful veterinary science has proven to the slave industry, let me point out that the number of practicing veterinarians has mushroomed since slavery has taken off in Australia. It's a great profession to enter, slaveholders now see us as a needed and valuable component of their stock investments, and it's a very interesting field to boot. We are, after all, trained from the beginning to deal with non-speaking animals. With slaves, many have had their tongues clipped or their vocal chords severed where vocal abilities aren't of much value, but there are many slaves out there who can speak the same language as you and I. They're a delight to treat - they can often tell you where it hurts and how much. That's a real treat for veterinarians! Before slavery, we had none of that. Incidentally, that remind's me, and I'm sure Mr. Smyth would agree on this point, slave silencing is one area best left to a professional. Tearing tongues out and severing vocal chords is not something you do in the back yard - there's just too much chance of infection." "Couldn't agree with you more, Geoffrey," Nevor Smyth agreed. "I can't tell you how many slaveowners have told me they tried it on their own (often in a rage over a slave's effrontery or lack of proper respect) and learned to regret it, losing a few slaves to infection in the process. I think all of us now know to leave that up you veterinary surgeons and, as I recall, it's fairly quick and not too costly - certainly worth the trouble and expense if you have some stock that can't learn voice-control properly." "I've got a point I forgot to bring up until that handsome slave boy serving us coffee reminded me of it," Dr. Castleberry interjected. "Learning how to dose brood slaves with just the right amount of estrogen to not only increase their fertility but also induce a higher rate of twinning has led to a nice boost in the output at the breeding farms like I would guess this slave boy serving us coffee is from. Too much injected into a brood and you get a litter of runts and defects - that was the problem when we first dabbled in this. But with the low dosages we've found in our research ups the birthing rate of nice healthy pups without any harmful side effects has been a real breakthrough. All it is," Dr. Castleberry chuckled, "is the same stuff birth control pills are made of - it's the dosage that makes all the difference. But production of a typical brood slave has risen from 18 successful birthings on the average to over 24 in just the past decade - some of it because we can get her back into production faster after her last pregnancy; some of it due to yielding two instead of one pup in the same delivery some of the time. The goal is, of course, to have brood slaves deliver a whole litter at a time, just like a dog or cat, but we're a long way from that yet. Slaves seem to be more like horses and cows in that particular area than dogs and cats, but we're working on it." "That coffee boy, and he is an eyeful all right, owes you and your medical colleagues a debt of gratitude if indeed he's a bred slave and a product of a multiple birth," Dr. Bruce laughed. "Otherwise, he wouldn't be here to serve us." "Thank you, master," some subservient voice drifted into a microphone from some distance away, obviously the coffee boy taking the clue that he should thank somebody for being born to serve them. "See there, Broderick," Dr. Bruce chortled, "our slaveboy here IS grateful. Obviously, he's been bred all right." "Well, gentlemen, that music in the background means our time is up for today's show," the show's host interjected. "I want to thank all three of you, Mr. Smyth of the Slave Owners Association, Dr. Castleberry representing the medical field, and Dr. Bruce, presenting the veterinarian's viewpoint. Tune in tomorrow, same time, same station, for our next show on the fascinating topic of Australian slaves. Tomorrow's topic will be "Can the professional breeders really develop specific slave species?" Chad was halfway home by the time the show was at an end and switched to his I-pod for some music for the rest of the trip. If his brother Bill hadn't heard the show himself, he wanted to go over some the information with him and pulled over to jot down a few notes on the show before he forgot some of the finer points. Within minutes, the notes were made, and a new band from Sydney into authentic Australian folk music boomed out of the speakers. The first song was a mournful ballad about buying a handsome buck slave for your bed and then finding out your girl friend was screwing him when your back was turned. It was a big hit nationally!