But the Farmland Regeneration Program was not exclusively based on drafted young people. There was a considerable flow of people who signed up on a voluntary basis. A reform of the law abolishing the possibility to sign up for a limited period of time only (re-tranformation had caused to much bureaucratic humdrum) had done little to change this. Apparently there was a considerable group of people ready and willing to spend the rest of their lives as animals.
Generally, of course, people who signed up voluntary insisted on deciding the species they would be tranformed into. The Office accepted this as long as there was demand for that species. Most volunteers opted for nice and/or exotic species. Many became zoo animals. However, there was also the group Dr. Simons, a scientist who was in charge of receiving incoming volunteers at the local regeneration centre, in private called the "oddies". People, who signed up as farm animals. among those, many withdrew once Dr. Simons had painted a realistic picture farm life for them. There were many people who had no idea how modern farming worked. Many also came imagining a life as a breeding animal. Most of those once they had learned what artificial insemination was and how breeding animals were slaughtered once their fertility or market demand for their offspring withered. But even considering this, the numbers were still surprising. And volunteers were surprisingly varied. Certainly, there were the usual drop-outs, psychos and busy-bodies. But there were also housewives fed up with their lives, disoriented souls on the lookout for some clear structure or young people feeling so guilty about not having been selected for the official program they signed up as volunteers.
Now the door opens and in comes ...