The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

Yes, but if you think the meadow jumping mouse is endangered, how many animated mice are there that are beloved by millions? That's a pretty short list - Mickey, Mighty, Jerry, Fievel.

Well, not that they're exactly endangered. Although, have you seen Mighty Mouse lately? I'm getting kinda worried.

"it does seem sort of ironic though that we give more protection to fictional mice than to real ones"

Actually, the way the government is justifying droping protection for Preble's Meadow Jumpting Mouse is by finding that the species is, in fact fictional and not real. The government determined that the PBMJ is not a separate species, but just a bunch of common mice who have learned to do a special trick (jumping) but are not biologically differentiated from other mice.

So, if one is to believe the determinations of the biologists, this is really just a case of one fictional mouse (Mikey) getting more protection than some other fictional mice (the PBMJ's).

Perhaps the environmentalists need to seek out some intellectial property protection for the PBMJ's jumping trick rather than fighting under the Endangered Species Act. Or, maybe the PBMJ's just need a better agent. Sounds like Michael Eisner might be available soon.

Mark