There are many documented cases of animal intelligence and compassion but are they true? Animals have shown amazing signs of intelligence and some elephants have shown great signs of consciousness in their habitat. They have also shown human like signs of compassion towards their species and other species. In the short stories “What Your Pet Is Thinking” “In The Shadow Of Man” also in a couple Ted Talks “Why Elephants Never Forget” “The Gentle Genius Of Bonobos” and “ How Smart are Animals” documentary they give strong evidence of animal intelligence and compassion and somewhat conscious of the world outside of their home. First off there not a lot of studies that truly prove that animals are conscious of what's around them. Scientists can't prove a dog is conscious of it surroundings using food it doesn't make the study valid says Bonnie …show more content…
Beaver professor at Texas A&M(86).
There are some studies that do prove that animals are conscious though. In “Why Elephants Never Forget” elephants have remembered a drought from when they were young so they remember to not go to that area for water. Also many elephant herds have a better survival rate if the leader is an elder because they’ve been around longer and remember more places that aren’t safe. Lastly the only other piece of evidence of a conscious animal is Alex the parrot because he was able to communicate and know what he was saying it wasn't just nothing like “Polly wants a cracker” it was actual communication. This doesn't mean animals aren’t conscious it just means there isn’t enough evidence and studies to back it up. Next studies have shown that animals are compassionate and have showed in in different ways. In “What Your Pet Is Thinking” Grace is a elephant in her own herd but another elephant was in trouble in a different herd and Grace went out of her way to try and help
her. The other elephant was dying and Grace tried to help pick her up but the elephant just collapsed again. Grace waited with her all night until she eventually succumbed(87). Furthermore in the “Why Elephants Never Forget” scientist observed that elephant hold memorials for their deceased and bury them. YaYa a panda at the china zoo rolled over and crushed her baby and was in a frantic state with tears in her eyes a zoo keeper said (88). Animals are truly compassionate how could a mother not feel empty or anything when her child has died or when another animal is in trouble there has to be some kind of emotion they feel. Second most people would agree animals are intelligent however some think otherwise. For example Bonnie Beaver professor at Texas A&M believes that food isn’t a valid testing method for animal intelligence sure the animal is gonna do something interesting but it wants that food (86). There are plenty of animals that proved to be intelligent with no food involved. Such as Chaser she knows all of her toys names and even inferred that Darwin was the toy alien to her. In the Ted Talk “Why Elephants Never Forget” studies prove that elephants use basic arithmetic and can paint with their trunks. The evidence is there but some scientist think people read too much into it and over exaggerate the intelligence of animals. Is animal intellect hocus pocus or do we need to continue reading into it and testing and studying the behavior of animals? Third animal intelligence studies are fairly new and the evidence gather already is astounding. Such as Alex the parrot he has been able to to point out color, shape, and what something is. Unfortunately studies with Alex were cut short when Alex passed away September 6, 2007. Alex was able to tell the difference between a toy key and a real key also was able to speak and was conscious of what he was saying. There are also other cases of animal intelligence such as Chaser who is a brilliant dog. Chaser was able to know all of the names assigned to her stuffed toys and this was tested and she would get it right every time. Then Chaser was put to the test and a stuffed toy she wasn't familiar with was put in the pile and she was able to figure out that Darwin was the unfamiliar toy. In addition when Jane Goodall was studying bonobos and discovered the bonobo she was following David Greybeard used tools to eat his food (81). Why can’t animals be intelligent but humans can we all have brains is it the lack of communication is that the gap we suffer from? Finally animal are just as compassionate and intelligent as humans and aren’t given enough recognition for it. Animals have been known to help other animals in times of need. Also some animals have been very human like such as the bonobos and chimpanzees. Elephants have been known for their outstanding memory like remembering a drought from their childhood. Mother animals have shown compassion towards their young and sometimes not their species an example of that is when a chimpanzee helped an injured bird. Why do humans not believe in animals having compassion and intelligence are we too ignorant to recognize the thought and feelings of a species not of our own?
Watch out dolphins because you may no longer be the most intelligent animals anymore! Elephants, one of our lands largest creatures, are taking your spot! In the video, Elephants Show Cooperation, the article, Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk, and the passage, from Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task, the authors illustrate the intelligence of these pachyderms. They all show an experiment that proves this claim. Elephants “join the elite club of social cooperators: chimpanzees, hyenas, rooks, and humans.” Their cognitive ability even surprises the researchers. They not only make wise decisions, but also work well with their companions. All three sources depict the sagacity of these remarkable creatures.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Usage of the Straw Man Method of Persuasion in What the Dog Saw
While trust is a somewhat common theme in modern novels, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime manages to portray how it affects people in their day to day lifestyle. The book tells the story of Christopher Boone a young boy with autism and his murder mystery novel about the murder of his neighbor's dog. Why this novel is significant is because Mark Haddon tells the story that many young people with autism, like Christopher, live everyday and who’s view on life and the idea of trust and understanding of the world is drastically different than any teenager.
Animals can appear to plan for the future, for instance gathering food and storing it for future use, but then again this seems to be nothing more than instinctive behavior. Actually rationally thinking about the future involves considering prospective consequences. Animals may be aware when it is feeding time, but they will not rationalize about what they want to eat; it’s less of a choice and more of a need on a basis for survival. Animals can have distinctive capacities for memory storage. The phrase "an elephant never forgets" derives from elephants’ notable ability to recall the locations of places, other animals, and things, such as water holes, long after visiting them only one time in their life. What separates humans from animals are their abilities to reflect on the events from they’re past and evaluate them, or wish they had done something differently. How animals do learn is from repeated experience and instinct. One would expect that when a deer has a close encounter with a car, it would not cross roads or learn to cross when there are no cars, but that is not how animals think. A deer will still cross the road; it is purely luck that prevents the deer from getting hit by a car. Fukuyama references the concept of consciousness as a key element of demanding respect and dignity. While explaining the concepts of feelings of pain
Why do owner's treat pets as humans? Within Emilia Di Luca's essay The Pet Owner's Burden Di Luca asks this pondering question. She begins by telling one of her own experiences of treating her dog Amber as a human. Throughout the essay Di Luca provides the reader with several different piece of evidence that would prove why people should not treat pets as humans which she concludes with. In my opinion, Di Luca provides too much information overwhelming the reader. Di Luca attempts to give the reader enough evidence to support her conclusion but fails by supporting her argument from only one side. Within each piece of evidence Di Luca give such as, people being imperialists, narcissists, mothers, and consumers to their
Ever wonder how animals know so much? It’s simple. It’s all according to how they act and what they know. When an animal is born it has instincts. These instincts help the creature survive and cause them to behave certain ways. This is called Innate behaviors. Although, some things animals have been taught. Unlike Innate behaviors whereas it comes from the genes, other behaviors have to be learned. They are called Learned behaviors. Together, Innate and Learned behaviors can prove that animals are smarter then most people think.
As I mentioned, I disagree with Carruthers reasoning. First and foremost, I think he contradicts himself. He says that animals are capable of suffering and feeling pain and emotions at a conscious level. So if they are capable of that, just as humans are, then why are they not considered rational agents with moral standing? They may be different from us in many ways, but if you break it down at a really basic level there are similarities. [Try to explain these similarities if
In conclusion, Mudrik et al. research contributed a great deal to our understanding of the unconscious processing, as it was the first study to prove that human visual awareness is not needed for object-background integration. However, there are few minor methodology concerns that prevent their findings to be generalized to other ethnicities that potential research could possibly investigate. Nonetheless, this discovery provides greater insights into the complex nature of human conscious awareness, which can help us better understand its function and purpose to differentiate unconscious processing.
It is nearly impossible to say whether non-human animals are intelligent. Most studies, in this field of psychology, were carried out on primates, and it is thought that these animals are naturally superior. It seems most behaviour in the research discussed in this essay can be explained through association learning, therefore not actually a result of intelligence. It is difficult to falsify whether animals are intelligent or not because, although they are able to solve problems they only show some aspects to suggest ToM.
In Extreme Perception And Animal Intelligence by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson discusses about the extreme perception of an animal and how are they intelligent. Some animals which show deep perception than authors are numerus. For instance, many dogs can predict the seizure of his owner before it begins.
Elizabeth Taylor once said “Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.” This shows that animals can be a big impact in humans life and what they can’t do to help. Guide dogs help blind people walk on the street cross the road and do other thing blind people can not do on their own. I’m going to prove that animals impact life of humans.
In conclusion I hope to have shed some new light on just what animal cruelty is and what it consists of. I hope that with this information people will be more open to what they see. Hopefully this information will cut down on animal abuse and will make people watch out for mistreatment of animals. I hope that people will think twice before abusing animals. Animals DO have feelings. They may not be able to talk and tell us where it hurts, but they do feel pain just like humans. There are laws to protect animals just like humans. I do not feel as though the laws are strong enough nor are they enforced the way they should.
] Some animals might be intelligent and may not be so intelligent because some animals might run into the street and if they don't that means I they are smart are just trained to do that. Sometimes animals might just have the to run in the street for a
Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted a dog. Never did I think that dogs would end up being by biggest fear. I was just a little kid around 6 years old when it happened. I was walking home from my friend’s house when I saw a stray dog, it was in the middle of the street blocking my way, I decided to walk past it, while I was walking it started growling at me, I hesitated but still kept trying to walk then suddenly it got up and started barking empathically towards me. I was terrified, my first initial reaction being a 6 year old kid was to scare it away, I was ignorant. I picked up a rock and threw it at the dog thinking it’ll get scared and run away. I was wrong. The dog had enough it made a whimpering noise then started barking even louder
Animals can be perceived in many different ways. While some humans consider animals to be mindless machines programmed with instinct, others view them as spiritual creatures capable of coherent thought and emotions. I feel that animals are somewhere in the middle. Although they rely heavily on instinct, the ability to feel emotions shows that their mental capacity is not far from that of a human.