Man
and other animals
Our fellow creatures have feelings
- so we should give
them rights too
While much of the talk in big science over past years
has centred on new breakthroughs in biotechnology,
nanotechnology, computers and more esoteric questions
such as the age of our universe, a quieter story has
been unfolding behind the scenes in laboratories
around the world - one whose impact on human
perception and our understanding of the world is
likely to be even more profound. And, strangely, the
companies sponsoring the research are McDonald's,
Burger King, KFC and other fast food purveyors.
Pressured by animal rights activists and by growing
public support for the humane treatment of animals,
these companies have financed research into, among
other things, the emotional, mental and behavioural
states of our fellow creatures. What the researchers
are finding is unsettling. It appears that many of our
fellow creatures are more like us than we had ever
imagined. They feel pain, suffer, experience stress,
affection, excitement - and even love.
Studies on pigs' social behaviour
at
Purdue University
in the US, for example, have found that they crave
affection and are easily depressed if isolated or
denied playtime with each other. The lack of mental
and physical stimuli can result in deterioration of
health and increased incidence of diseases. The EU has
taken such studies to heart and has outlawed the use
of isolating pig stalls by 2012, and mandated their
replacement with open-air stalls. In Germany, the
government is encouraging pig farmers to give each pig
20 seconds of human contact every day and to provide
them with two or three toys to prevent them fighting.
The pig study only scratches the surface of what is
going on in the field of research into animal emotions
and cognitive abilities. Researchers were stunned
recently by the publication of an article in the
prestigious journal Science reporting on the
conceptual abilities of New Caledonian crows. In
controlled experiments, scientists at Oxford
University reported that two birds named Betty and
Abel were given a choice between using two tools, one
a straight wire, the other a hooked wire, to snag a
piece of meat from inside a tube. Both chose the
hooked wire. But then, unexpectedly, Abel, the more
dominant male, stole Betty's hook, leaving her only
with a straight wire. Unphased, Betty used her beak to
wedge the wire in a crack and then bent it with her
beak to produce a hook, like the one stolen from her.
She then snagged the food from inside the tube.
Researchers repeated the experiment 10 more times
giving her straight wires, and she fashioned a hook
out of the wire nine times, demonstrating a
sophisticated ability to create tools.
Then there is the story of Alex the African grey
parrot,
who was able to
master tasks previously
thought to be the preserve of human beings. Alex can
identify more than 40 objects and seven colours, and
can add and separate objects into categories.
Equally impressive is Koko, a gorilla who was taught
sign language, has mastered more than 1,000 signs and
understands several thousand English words. On human
IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95, putting her in
the slow learner - but not retarded - category.
Tool-making and developing language skills are just
two of the many attributes we thought were exclusive
to our species. Self-awareness is another.
Philosophers and animal behaviourists have long argued
that other animals are not capable of self-awareness
because they lack a sense of individualism. Not so,
according to a spate of new studies. At the Washington
National Zoo, 
orangutans
given mirrors explore parts
of their bodies they can't see otherwise, showing a
sense of self. An orangutan named Chantek at the
Atlanta Zoo used a mirror to groom his teeth and
adjust his sunglasses, says his trainer.
When it comes to the ultimate test of what
distinguishes humans from the other creatures,
scientists have long believed that mourning for the
dead represents the real divide. Other animals have no
sense of their mortality and are unable to comprehend
the concept of their own death. But animals, it
appears, experience grief.
Elephants
will often stand
next to their dead kin for days, in silence,
occasionally touching their bodies with their trunks.
Kenyan biologist Joyce Poole, who has studied African
elephants for 25 years, says that elephant behaviour
towards their dead "leaves me with little doubt that
they experience deep emotion and have some
understanding of death."
We also know that virtually all animals play,
especially when young.
Anyone
who has ever observed
the antics of puppies, kittens or bear cubs cannot
help but notice the similarities in the way they play
and our own children. Recent studies in the brain
chemistry of rats show that when they play, their
brains release large amounts of dopamine, a
neurochemical associated with pleasure and excitement
in human beings.
Noting the striking similarities in brain anatomy and
chemistry of humans and other animals, Steven Siviy, a
behavioural scientist at Gettysburg College in
Pennsylvania, asks a question increasingly on the
minds of other researchers: "If you believe in
evolution by natural selection, how can you believe
that feelings suddenly appeared, out of the blue, with
human beings?"
The new findings of researchers are a far cry from the
conceptions espoused by orthodox science. Until very
recently, scientists were still advancing the idea
that most creatures behaved by sheer instinct, and
that what appeared to be learned behaviour was merely
genetically wired activity. Now we know that geese
have to teach their goslings their migration routes.
In fact, we are finding out that learning is passed on
from parent to offspring far more often than not and
that most animals engage in learned experience brought
on by continued experimentation and trial-and-error
problem-solving.
So what does all of this portend for the way we treat
our fellow creatures? What about the thousands of
animals subjected each year to painful laboratory
experiments? Or the millions of domestic animals
raised under inhumane conditions and destined for
slaughter and human consumption. Should we ban
leg-hold traps and discourage the sale and purchase of
fur coats? And what about killing animals for sport?
Fox hunting in England, bull-fighting in Spain,
cock-fighting in Mexico? What about entertainment?
Should lions be caged in zoos, should elephants be
made to perform in circuses?
These questions are beginning to be raised in
courtrooms and in legislation around the world. Today,
Harvard and 25 other law schools in the US have
introduced law courses on animal rights, and an
increasing number of cases representing the rights of
animals are entering the court system. Germany
recently became the first government in the world to
guarantee animal rights in its constitution.
The human journey is, at its core, about the extension
of empathy to broader and more inclusive domains. At
first, the empathy extended only to kin and tribe.
Eventually it was extended to people of like-minded
values - a common religion, nationality or ideology.
In the 19th century, the first humane societies were
established, extending the empathy to include our
fellow creatures. Today, millions of people, under the
banner of the animal rights movement, are continuing
to deepen and to expand human concern for, and empathy
toward, our fellow creatures.
The current studies into animals' emotions, cognition
and behaviour open up a new phase in the human
journey, allowing us to both expand and deepen our
empathy - this time, to include the broader community
of creatures who live alongside us.
Jeremy Rifkin is the author of Beyond Beef: 
The
Rise
and Fall of the Cattle Culture (Plume, 1992), and The
Biotech Century (Victor Gollancz, 1998). He is also
the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in
Washington DC
email: comment@guardian.co.uk
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