When Elephants Weep
I've been curious about the book, "When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals" and having read it, my curiosity is more than satisfied.
It's not that hard to believe that animals other than humans have emotions, feelings and wants. Anyone who has an animal companion can see proof of these emotions at any time during their daily relationships with their pets.
It does not border on anthropomorphism when people realize that animals are capable of understanding what we say to them and to ourselves understand that animals are also able to communicate with humans. Close to home, our companion pets weigh all manner of signals emanating from body language to gauge our moods, our intent. Intelligent dogs like Poodles for example, amass a very respectable vocabulary of word-recognition aided and abetted by tone of voice and physical stance.
Dogs are known to sniff the clothing of their companion-humans to determine what their destination may be, and whether it might possibly include them. If someone pulls on jeans that are normally used for hiking it's a clear cue to the waiting dog that they're both going to enjoy a nice hike. If working clothes are worn, dogs then realize that their companions are off to another place which excludes their presence. The same can be said of our own two dogs, that when they see me hauling out a dry mop and dusters a good number of hours will be lost to them as I'm busy cleaning the house we share. They take themselves off for the duration of my activities until they're signalled by the invariably last activity which is a return of area rugs to floors which have been washed - and they know, following this that a more amicable inclusiveness is available to them.
Suggest to one of our dogs that they go and retrieve a ball and off they go to retrieve that favourite toy. To the other dog, the operative word is 'your toy', as he is not wedded to a ball, and off he will go to retrieve one of his toys from his toychest. Tell them to settle down and go to sleep and they do just that. Say something to the effect of "who's there?" and they become mad with excitement anticipating a visit from a family member. Ask one of them to come out from under a favoured position under an armchair and he won't budge. Add that you want to wash his eyes and out he comes, however reluctantly. Tell them that it's time to brush their teeth and they know what's in the offing. In the evening settle down with their hair brushes and invite them over, and they settle, each in turn (the older one first) between my outstretched legs, for their evening hairbrushing. Yes, they like us, are creatures of habit and that too helps, but this is still meaningful communication between two species of animal.
Animal researchers like Jane Goodall have furthered our knowledge about the possibility of communication between humans and their close biological counterparts. Despite which, there is still and will likely always be a real paucity of hard information derived from intensive research to demonstrate just how well we have the potential of communicating with other species. The fact is, humans feel quite content in the knowledge that we are superior animals, the only animals capable of deep emotional feelings, of reasoning, of looking to the future. We collectively resign to the rubbish-heap of impossibilities the facts which stare us in the face when it comes to animal behaviour and emotions.
It is, in fact, entirely possible that animals other than ourselves can be capable of tenderness, protectiveness, tolerance, aesthetic appreciation and the kind of love for one another that we feel is the sole prerogative of humans. Gratitude and vengefulness are emotions which surface in animals much as they do in humans. We know that some animals pair for life, but we shrug this off as an aberration of nature. We can see that birds take pleasure in flight, in songs, in colourful displays. Animals accept a social hierarchy, and to do that there must presumably be a degree of social awareness.
We humans look forward to special events in our lives, from life-altering experiences like the birth of a child, to the simple pleasures inherent in a walk in the woods. Although dogs, for example, have relinquished their unique independence aeons ago to remain house companions of humans they desire and appreciate any opportunity to delve into the deep woods, just as we do, only they, of course, are far more at home there than we are, as closer children of nature.
I suppose it's too much to ask that we view animals as deserving as much respect from us as we demand from them. We are, after all, their 'masters', and they our 'pets'. There is an ownership relationship, wherein pets are considered personal property, not partners in existence. On the other hand, perhaps it's not all that surprising that we cannot confer partnership on other animals since we appear to have so much difficulty, person-to-person, adjudging other humans to be equal to ourselves. We are, alas, less discriminating as a force of nature, than discriminatory toward all others who share this planet with us.
More's the pity.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 11, 2005
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