When Elephants Weep
http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/write ... n_ele.html
What are the implications of finding that animals lead emotional lives?
The basic idea seems to be that if something does not feel pain in the way a human being feels pain, it is permissible to hurt it. Even though this is not necessarily true, the illusion of differences is maintained out of fear that seeing similarity will create an obligation to accord respect and perhaps even equality. This appears to be the case especially when it comes to suffering, pain, sorrow, sadness. We do not want to cause these things in others because we know what it feels like to experience them ourselves.
Speaking of the connection between suffering and selfless love in animals, Darwin wrote: “In the agony of death, a dog has been known to caress his master, and every one has heard of the dog suffering under vivisection, who licked the hand of the operator; this man is close enough to hear the anguished cries of the animals.
When humans refuse to inflict pain on other humans, surely it is because they assume they feel. It is not because another person can think, nor because they can reason, nor even because they can speak that we respect their physical boundaries, but because they feel. They feel pain, humiliation, sorrow, and other emotions, perhaps even some we do not yet recognize. We do not want to cause suffering. If, as I believe, animals feel pain and sorrow and all the other emotions, these feelings cannot be ignored in our behavior toward them.
It may be hard to imagine the sensual universe of another species, but it is not impossible. Our dog’s intense sniffing suggests she is picking up and responding to something beyond our senses. Her ability to take in information hidden from us is impressive; the resulting sudden shifts of mood are honored.
It is clear that animals form lasting friendships, are frightened of being hunted, have a horror of dismemberment, wish they were back in the safety of their den, despair for their mates, look out for and protect their children whom they love.
Animals are, like us, endangered species on an endangered planet, and we are the ones who are endangering them, it, and ourselves.
http://www.jeffreymasson.com/animal-boo ... -weep.html
Meet Koko, a bashful gorilla proficient in sign language who loves to play house with dolls-but only when no one is looking - and Michael, another signing gorilla, who cannot be disturbed whenever Pavarotti sings on television. Then there's Moja, the joyful mongoose who waltzes with squirrels; Toto, the steadfast chimpanzee who literally nursed his malaria-stricken human observer back to health; and Alex, an African gray parrot with an astonishing vocabulary, who, when left at the veterinarian's office, shrieked, "Come here! I love you. I'm sorry. I want to go back."
Bird Brains
http://www.animals.org/books/index.htm
Birds have long been viewed as the archetypal featherbrains—beautiful but dumb. But according to naturalist Candace Savage, “bird brain,” as a pejorative expression, should be rendered obsolete by new research on the family of corvids: crows and their close relations.
The ancients who regarded these remarkable birds as oracles, bringers of wisdom, or agents of vengeance were on the right track, for corvids appear to have powers of abstraction, memory, and creativity that put them on a par with many mammals, even higher primates.