As 40 billion non human animals die at human hands every year, it is gratifying to see the suffering of one animal, Los Angeles's poor elephant, Ruby, form the basis of a discussion of the larger issue -- the way human society treats other animals.
The Tuesday, November 16, Los Angeles Times has a lead article (cover of the Metro section, pg B1) headed, "Soft Heart Under Her Thick Skin?; Observers look for signs of emotion in Ruby, back at the L.A. Zoo after a reportedly unhappy stay in Tennessee."
Rather than focusing just on Ruby's return to the Los Angeles Zoo, Patricia Ward Biederman introduces the more general topic of animal emotion. She writes:
"Naturalist Charles Darwin wrote about animal emotions, but for much of the 20th century to say an elephant was sad was to be guilty of anthropomorphism, the unscientific projection of human feelings on animals.
"Today, an increasing number of scientists believe that animals have emotions.
"Whether those emotions are comparable to human ones is another matter."
The article includes quotes like this one from John Capitanio, associate director for research at the California National Primate Research Center: "We don't know what love looks like, in spite of what animal activists would say. When we see a chimp cuddling its infant, we don't know if its internal feeling state is the same as what humans feel when they embrace their children."
But it is balanced by some by Marc Bekoff, a professor of animal behavior at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who is described as "An animal activist as well as a scientist." He says that sad animals "mope around, they don't eat." He makes the wild suggestion that how the animal seems to be is more than likely how he is, just as "Usually when we see a person who seems to be sad, they are sad."
You can read the full article on line at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ru...1,1672848.story
It presents a great opportunity, not just for letters about Ruby, but about the way our society treats members of other species.
The Los Angeles Times takes letters at: letters@latimes.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.dawnwatch.com/.
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