A world without bed bugs and roaches??? Oh we can dream 
Why, was the 7-pairs thing your point? Because you didn’t actually mention it. And I find it irksome how the incorrect-count version has become the remembered story.
Anyway, I thought the board was doing the nested quotes thing…did they stop that? :smack:
Octopuses, because they are awesome. Also bats, because why not?
As the son & brother of ranchers who has been seeing the idea that beef is a “inefficient” food source around a lot lately, I have to point out that it isn’t necessary to feed grain to cattle at all and that the heavy grain feedlot diet is a fairly recent development in agriculture due to cheap corn. The Cornell article does make the distinction of grain-fed beef but it seems that many people miss this point. They can graze on land that isn’t suitable to grain farming, it will just take longer for them to gain the size and the meat would be very lean and not as tasty. (I grew up on grass-fed beef and actually prefer leaner beef). Until modern specialization of the breeds, most cattle were multipurpose as dairy, draft and meat animals. Very useful for starting over on another planet.
Pigs-They will eat about anything and turn it into meat,lard and manure/fertilizer.
Goats-Meat, fiber, and dairy. They are also very smart & hardy. Sheep not so much.
Horses-Transportation and herding.
Chickens-They can provide eggs & meat on a diet of vegetable scraps,some grain, and bugs. The insect control would be a important side benefit.
Dogs-Work, security, & companionship.
Cats-Vermin control.
Bees-Pollination.
Wild animals-Assuming there is already wildlife on this alt-Earth, a couple of varieties of wild birds (song,game, & some type of hawk) & at least one kind of deer/antelope. I can’t imagine life without seeing birds & deer.
Mice, rats, cockroaches, & flys will probably make the trip on their own as stowaways.
God knows that last is true.
But we owe it - owe it - to dogs to give them first seat.
Frankly, they’ve been better partners for us than WE have most days.
I grew up on a ranch myself, and raised and sold beef cattle. I still wouldn’t pick cattle to take. They are definitely yummy, but the other sources of milk and protien I picked are hardier and take less effort to raise. I think I might change my mind if I knew the planet was largely lush grassland.
Monkeys, because everything is better with monkeys.
And if we don’t do so well on the artificial intelligence front, monkey butlers.
But we need to treat them kindly and make sure they don’t rebel.
If dogs get the first seat then the second seat goes to pigeons.
Yes, pigeons.
After dogs, pigeons was the second animal domesticated by humans.
Pigeons breed quickly and reliably so they are an excellent food source.
They can be used for communication. (there are no cell towers over there)
They can be used for entertainment via racing or breeding fancy breeds.
Pigeons, we need them.
The domesticated animals listed in Guns, Germs, and Steel. As much as I dislike cats and all things feline, they’re useful for agriculture. Polinators for the crops we bring.
As long as we don’t bring any Cylons with us, I think we’ll be OK.
If we don’t take the dogs, I’m not going…
I’m good with that. Do we really deserve a chance to fuck up another planet?
I hate dogs and will never own one, and even I agree with this.
I object to the notion that we’ve fucked up this planet. We are part of the planet, just as are beavers, honeybees, and so forth. Unless we are in fact obliterated by an antimatter meteor, life on Earth will outlive us.
ETA: And who is to say we DON’T deserve to live? Zeus? Klaatu? Darkseid?
If there are going to be mosquitos then I’m just not playing. I can’t think of a better reason to make the move than to escape gnats and mosquitos once and for all. Celtling and I are already packed and can be ready to go in an hour. . .
I think goats are the most important to bring. They make milk that human babies can drink straight, which will be important when the Mothers are working hard on a subsistence diet.
Salmon. We need omega 3s and yummyness that can be reached without a fishing fleet. Also Oysters would be good, and the whole algae+krill+sardine+Herring food line.
Migrating birds. Sea birds especially. They are important fro spreading diversity in the areas we haven’t invaded yet.
And if there’s room, can we please have lobster? After all, somebody has to clean up the ocean floor. . . ::bats eyes::
Ok…What?
A sild is a young herring canned as a sardine in. Smews are ducks.
Not trusting Skald at all, my minions sneak on board and replace the animal cargo with;
Mosquitos, Lice, Wood Ticks, Bot Flies, Vampire Bats and 17 varieties of poisonous snakes.
All locked on automatic release as the ship hits orbit.
Possibly Spiders to eat insects (if there will be insects at the destination). But none of the heinously venomous sorts.
**Bees **because if we need to plant stuff (and we will), we’ll need bees to do their thing.
**Chickens **for eggs and meat; they’re delicious, reproduce quickly, and take up little space.
Guinea pigs because they’re edible, fattier than rabbits so rabbit starvation won’t be an issue, reproduce quickly, and are very very small for ease of transport.
Cows for milk and beef.
Birds because lacking the sound of birdsong would just be weird.
Cats because I like them.
I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of other helpful species. Seriously though, no rabbits. Rabbit starvation could be a real risk.
To rebuild human civilization, we’ll need a lot of manpower. With only ten million colonists to bring along, we might not be able to spare enough spaces to fill with unskilled labor, without compromising the selection of specialists with a cross section of necessary skills.
I recommend bringing chimpanzees…as they reach sexual maturity twice as fast as humans, a rigorous program of selective breeding, biological engineering, and savage training should be able to produce a viable slave race within half a century.
There is, of course, the chance that they could rebel, creating the terrible Planet of the Apes. But hey, sometimes you have to roll the hard six.