A n i m
a l W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
07/23/00
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MicheleARivera@aol.com
~ SavingLife@aol.com
THE SIX ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Minding The Animals by Steve Best
2 ~ Job Opening - FARM
3 ~ Grade "A"
4 ~ Feral Cat Assistance
5 ~ If It Should Be (Poem)
6 ~ Quote To Remember
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Minding The Animals
by Steve Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com
"The basic facts have come home at last. We are not the only conscious
creatures on earth." Bernard Baars, cognitive psychologist.
"Bye, I'm gonna go eat dinner. I'll see you tomorrow."
Alex the Grey parrot
Koko the gorilla has a sign vocabulary of 500 words and does internet
chats. Alex the parrot knows the names
of over 100 different objects, 7 colors, and 5 shapes; he can count objects up
to 6 and speaks in meaningful sentences.
Michael the gorilla loved Pavarotti and refused to go outside when he
was on TV. Hoku the dolphin grieved when his companion, Kiko, died. Flint
the chimp died of a broken heart after the death of his mother, Flo.
While this account of the emotional and intellectual richness of animals may
touch the layperson, it offends the hard-nose scientist. From the scientific
perspective, it is nonsense to speak of animal emotions and minds, since they
can't be observed or measured. It is anthropomorphic to ascribe human-like
characteristics to animals. It is unscientific to name them as if they were
people. And such stories at best are
merely anecdotal.
Beginning in the seventeenth century, modern science constructed a mechanistic
paradigm which views animals as automata or machines. From Descartes to
sociobiology and behaviorism in the present, the modern tradition cast animals
in the role of brutes or machines who can neither feel nor think. Students
trained in this paradigm quickly learn to avoid reference to the subjective
life of animals unless they desire ridicule. Under the spell of behaviorism,
scientists redescribe the love a chimpanzee might experience as
"attachment formation," the anger of an elephant as "aggression
exhibition," and the aptitude of a bird as a "conditioned
reflex." Journals typically refuse to publish papers that allude to animal
thoughts or emotions. Jane Goodall reports how extreme the mechanistic outlook
can be: "The first paper I wrote for `Nature,' the scientific periodical,
they actually crossed out where I put `he and she and who,' and put `it.'"
Today, this situation is changing decisively as science undertakes an exciting
paradigm shift that embraces the study of animal emotions and minds. Until the
last few decades, human beings have languished in the Paleolithic Era of their
knowledge about animals. As evident in a spate of recent books and the new
discipline of "cognitive ethology" that studies animal intelligence,
science finally is beginning to fathom the depth of animal complexity. Only in
the 1960s, for instance, when Jane Goodall went to Gombe National Park in
Tanzania, Africa, did human beings learn that chimpanzees make and use tools.
Not until 1983 did researchers discover that elephants communicate with
ultrasound. New studies suggest that rats dream when they sleep and that the
great apes have "self-awareness neurons" responsible for
self-consciousness.
Having misled us for so long about animals, science is initiating a revolution
in our understanding. Through evolutionary theory, genetics, neurophysiology,
and experimental procedures, many scientists are providing strong evidence that
animals feel and think in ways akin to us. The changes began with Charles
Darwin. His theory of natural selection informed us that human beings are in
fact animals and, as such, they evolve according to the same evolutionary
dynamics as nonhuman animals. Darwin argued that the difference between
nonhuman and human animals was one of degree, not form. Although evolution
became the dominant paradigm in biology, scientists failed to appreciate the
implications of his argument for evolutionary continuity. While Darwin sketched
our similarities with animals in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and
Animals, scientists found his argument repugnant. In a profession that
knows no limits to the cruelty it inflicts on animals, mechanism has proved to
be a most convenient worldview, allowing animal experimenters to sleep at
night.
Today we know that human DNA is over 98% identical to chimpanzees and that they
are closer to us genetically than to orangutans. Mammals possess a limbic
system and neocortex, the same functions that enable human beings to experience
emotions and have abstract thoughts. The brain structures of humans and chimps
are almost identical. All mammals possess oxytocin, a hormone involved in the
experience of pleasure during sex and that plays a key role in mother-infant
bonding. If the emotions and thoughts of human beings have a chemical and
physiological basis, and animals have a similar make-up, it is likely they too
feel complex emotions like love and can think in creative ways.
In Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals,
Franz de Waal argues that "the great apes" (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans,
and gorillas) laid the foundation for many human behavioral and familial
dynamics. Both he and Jane Goodall
conclude that chimpanzee societies demand complex social skills far beyond that
allowed by behaviorism. Their world is governed not only by instincts and
chemicals, but also through rules and norms. Like us, they live in a culture of
shared communication and learning that is passed down from generation to
generation.
Donald Griffin's work in Animal Thinking (1984) and Animal Minds
(1992) dealt powerful blows to the behaviorist tradition of John Watson and
B.F. Skinner. Considered to be the
father of cognitive ethology, and famous for discovering bats use echolocation
to map their terrain, Griffin took seriously the notion that animals can think
and made compelling arguments to that effect. Since Griffin's work, a rich
scientific literature has been assembled proving the sophistication and
flexibility of animal minds. Through countless instances of observation and
experimentation, a solid case for animal intelligence has been established that
is changing not only our view of animals, but ourselves.
Given the tools of American Sign Language and lexigram symbols, great apes are
communicating to human beings and one another their needs, desires, and
thoughts. Dolphins understand and follow simple commands like "Put the
ball in the hoop." In a famous experiment, birds -- who also are tool
makers and users -- have solved the problem of how to eat food dangling from a
line by looping the string and holding it with their feet. Beavers exhibit
great flexibility in building their dams and solve problems posed to them on a
case-by-case basis. Various tests with mirrors and hidden objects suggest that
chimpanzees and bonobos might have self-consciousness and awareness of other
minds. Thousands of experiments in the field and laboratory have demonstrated
that animals such as prairie dogs, squirrels, and even chickens convey not only
emotion but also information in their complexly differentiated alarm cries for
the presence of predators. Recent studies suggest birds, primates, and whales
may use a grammar-like structure in their communication.
George Page's book Inside the Animal Mind cites experiments where adult
chimps use analogical reasoning better than children and some adults. One
researcher found cases where pigeons performed better on categorization tests
than his own undergraduates. In his book Wild Minds, Marc Hauser adopts
the stance of a "healthy skeptic" toward many claims about animal
emotions and intelligence. From an evolutionary perspective, he argues that all
animal brains have to cope with similar problems, and therefore each species
has its own special "mental toolkits" for processing information
about objects, number, and space. Variations lead to differences among species,
with homo sapiens evolving toward an unprecedented complexity. Still, he
concludes, "We share the planet with thinking animals ... Although the
human mind leaves a characteristically different imprint on the planet, we are
certainly not alone in this process."
In a review of Griffin's Animal Thinking, E. A. Wasserman concluded,
"No statement concerning consciousness in animals is open to verification
and experimentation." This is simply false, for the ethological literature
abounds with examples of ingenious experiments which have been designed to test
the emotional sensitivities and intelligence of animals. Hauser's book in
particular discusses experimental designs where hypotheses about animal
emotions and minds are confirmed, refuted, or left uncertain.
Clearly, results can be interpreted in different ways, and staunch defenders of
behaviorism remain unconvinced. In 1984, C. Lloyd Morgan formulated the
"law of parsimony," a variation on Ockham's razor, which states that
one should not appeal to a "higher" function intelligence) of
organisms when a "lower" function (instinct) will adequately explain
a behavior. Behaviorists used his principle in an aggressively reductionistic
manner, subsuming all behaviors to crude instincts and learning mechanisms. But
Morgan himself admitted animal intelligence and his principle establishes just
the opposite. When confronted by the overwhelming evidence of animal
intelligence, the lower functions do not explain the behaviors; rather, they
make sense only through reference to higher level principles. In other words,
the simplest explanation, the one not saddled with ad hoc qualifications, is an
appeal to the flexible and thinking qualities of animal minds.
Believing animals to be devoid of feeling and thought is an interesting case
of projection, for all along it has been scientists who lack these
characteristics, burdened by irrational prejudices and ill-equipped to
understand human similarities and differences with animals. In Rattling the
Cage, Wise shows that animal intelligence varies according to the degree
researchers nurture it with proper social environments. It should be no
surprise that Professor Herbert Terrace, who concluded chimpanzees only mimic
their trainers and don't sign creatively on their own, confined them in a
stultifying laboratory setting. Nim Chimpsky (a hilarious pun on linguist Noam
Chompsky who argued only human beings have grammar) flourished in his
linguistic facility once freed from Terrace's punishing hands.
Acknowledging only one model of intelligence and communication -- that of homo
sapiens -- scientists have argued since animals don't speak or reason like we
do, they don't have minds at all. In expecting animals to satisfy human
criteria of language and intelligence, scientists have, after all, succumbed to
the dreaded sin of anthropomorphism. But anthropomorphism need not be a
scientific sin. Clearly we don't want
to project onto animals characteristics they don't have. But if there are core
commonalities between nonhuman and human animals, what Griffin calls
"critical anthropomorphism" is our best access to understanding
animals, and "objective detachment" will block insight every time.
The argument of cognitive ethology is not that animal emotions and
consciousness are as complex as ours, but that they exist in remarkably rich
forms. Human beings are unique in the
degree to which they possess intelligence; no other species, to my knowledge,
has written sonnets or sonatas, solved algebraic equations, or meditated on the
structure of the universe. But humans are not unique in their possession of a
neocortex; of complex emotions like love, loneliness, empathy, and shame; of
sophisticated languages, behaviors, and communities; and perhaps even of aesthetic
and moral sensibilities.
The paradigm shift from seeing animals as subjects of a life instead of objects
of a gaze has important implications. The genetic, behavioral, and emotional
continuities between humans and great apes, for example, is the philosophical
basis of "The Great Ape" project co-founded by Peter Singer, which
aims to establish our kinship and secure basic rights for our biological
relatives. Similarly, scientific findings about animal intelligence are crucial
to the legal rights for animals movement as described by Harvard law professor
Steven Wise in Rattling the Cage.
Feeling the winds of change from science, philosophy, and law, it seems that
American culture itself is in the midst of a paradigm shift. As we learn to
appreciate the complexity of animals and the deep continuities between their
world and ours, we begin to respect them more and accord them the rights -- to
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" -- they so richly
deserve. Every oppressed human group has fought for its liberation; now it's
the animals' turn. Since they can't speak for themselves, their liberation
demands our own liberation from the long-standing tradition of human biases
toward other species. As we grant animals minds, we free our own.
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Job Opening
FARM seeks WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY COORDINATOR,
starting immediately.
The position requires prior experience in running national campaigns, including
local activist contacts, mailings, and literature production, as well as daily
access to the FARM headquarters in suburban DC. Compensation commensurate with
experience.
Other current openings:
DIRECTOR OF CHOICE (plans and manages an ongoing national campaign to introduce
plant-based nutrition education and meals in schools)
OFFICE COORDINATOR (assists office manager in the daily running of the FARM
office, including answering telephone inquiries, filling requests, conducting
mailings, and ordering and organizing supplies and merchandise)
Each position requires applicable prior experience, dedication to promoting
animal rights and a vegan lifestyle, self-starting quality, and ability to work
in a team setting.
We offer an unparalleled opportunity for professional growth, and personal
fulfillment, along with modest pay and housing, if needed. The office is
located in a safe and pleasant residential neighborhood of Bethesda, MD, 20
minutes from downtown Washington.
FARM is a national organization promoting planetary survival through
plant-based eating. Our programs include the Great American Meatout,
World Farm Animals Day, National Veal Ban Action, Letters From FARM, CHOICE,
Industry Watch, and occasionally, a national convention like ANIMAL RIGHTS
2000. To learn more about FARM and our programs, check our web sites at
www.farmusa.org, www.meatout.org, and www.choiceusa.net.
To apply, send resume and a letter noting position(s), special qualifications
and interests, availability, and salary requirements to:
Employment, FARM, 10101 Ashburton Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817.
Now that the Animal Rights 2000 conference is behind us, it's time to start
planning your community's participation in World Farm Animals Day on October 2
(Gandhi's birthday).
Source: FARM
<farm@farmusa.org>
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Grade "A"
The future looks brighter when we are privileged
to hear about young people who earn outstanding grades on papers written about
veganism. Check out this grade A paper on the following website:
VegSource.com
http://www.vegsource.com/articles/natalya_veganism.htm
Source: John.Calabria@compaq.com
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Feral Cat Assistance
If you're one of the folks who feeds the local
alley cats, thanks for being a good neighbor! Now you can do MORE for the
cats and we'll pay you to do it! Did you know that you can humanely trap
them so they can be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, cared for while healing up
and returned to their freedom. Thus we can control the proliferation of feral
cats...Until a more perfect solution appears. Then, you can enter to
win a "Grand" in cat care equipment donated by ACES, just for doing
the right thing.
The cats will stop breeding, so much of their "nuisance" behavior
(like howling, roaming, fighting and spraying) will stop, too. The cats
will be healthier, and fewer kittens will die from hunger and preventable
diseases. How?
Send us your spay/neuter receipts at the address below. Receipts must be
legible and accompanied by your name, address, phone and email. Receipts
must be dated from now until September 1, 2000. There's no limit to the
number of entries you may submit. The winner will be chosen in a random
drawing on November 1, 2000.
(Alley Cat Allies is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping
stray and feral (wild) cats by controlling their population WITHOUT killing
them).
Special thanks to ANIMAL CARE EQUIPMENT & SERVICES who donated the Grand
Prize!
Alley Cat Allies
1801 Belmont Road, NW, Suite 201
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 667-3630 FAX: (202) 667-3640
www.alleycat.org
Information Provided By:
adela@metconnect.com
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If It Should Be
If it should be that I grow frail and weak
And pain should keep me from my sleep
The you must do what must be done
For this last battle...can't be won.
You will be sad....I understand
But don't let grief then stay your hand
For this day, more than all the rest
Your love and friendship stand the test.
We've had so many happy years
What is to come can hold no fears
You'd not want to suffer so
When my time comes, please let me go.
Take me where my needs they'll tend
But please stay with me 'til the end
Hold me firm and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.
I know in time you too will see
It's kindness that you do to me
Although my tail its last has waved
From pain and suffering I've been saved.
Please don't grieve that it is you
Who must decide this thing to do
We've been so close, we two, these years
Don't let your heart hold any tears.
From the book: Heart Songs for Animal Lovers
Source: Joan Jenrich
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Quote To Remember
"Maybe
in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself:
"Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words -
"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a
mystery, and that's why so is mankind."
~ Jack Handey
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
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