{"id":17741,"date":"2011-02-21T12:21:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T17:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/17741\/subject-big-fat-wicked-lie-people-animals\/"},"modified":"2011-02-21T12:21:48","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T17:21:48","slug":"subject-big-fat-wicked-lie-people-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/17741\/subject-big-fat-wicked-lie-people-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Subject: The Big Fat Wicked Lie People Tell About Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advocate for Saving Dogs\u2122<\/a>
\nAnimal Rights<\/a>
\n\u2665We\u2665Are\u2665All\u2665Connected\u2665<\/a>
<\/font>The Big Fat Wicked Lie
People Tell About Animals<\/font>
<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

Vernon Coleman<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Vivisectors,
\n hunters, butchers and farmers excuse the cruel way they treat animals
\nby claiming (falsely) that animals don’t have feelings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a lie.
<\/font><\/strong>
A big fat wicked lie which excuses a thousand cruelties.<\/font>
<\/strong>
The
\n truth, as anyone who is capable of reading and observing will know, is
\nthat animals are sentient and exhibit many of those qualities which
\nracists like to think of as being the preserve of the human race. (I
\nthink it is perfectly fair to describe those who claim that all good’
\nqualities are the exclusive property of the human species as racist’). <\/p>\n

One
\n of the absurdities of the argument about hunting which has raged for
\nrecent years in Britain has been the sight of apparently intelligent
\npeople arguing about whether or not animals which are hunted suffer
\nphysical pain and\/or mental anguish when they are being pursued. How can
\n there possibly be any doubt about this? Those who do express doubt
\nabout this are telling us a great deal about their own innate lack of
\nunderstanding and compassion and their inability to learn from simple
\nobservation. If observation is not enough there is more than enough
\nscientific evidence to show that birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and
\ncrustaceans all have nervous systems and all suffer pain.<\/p>\n

Darwin
\nshowed that fear produces similar responses in both humans and animals.
\nThe eyes and mouth open, the heart beats rapidly, teeth chatter, muscles
\n tremble, hairs stand on end and so on. Parrots, like human beings, turn
\n away and cover their eyes when confronted with a sight which overwhelms
\n them. Young elephants who have seen their families killed by poachers
\nwake up screaming in the night. Elephants who are suddenly separated
\nfrom their social group may die suddenly of broken heart syndrome’. Apes
\n may fall down and faint when suddenly coming across a snake. If a man
\nshouts at a dog he will cower and back away in fear. <\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/font>Animals Can Communicate<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/font>Animal
\n abusers sometimes assume that it is only humans who can communicate
\nwith one another. And yet bees can communicate the direction, distance
\nand value of pollen sources quite a distance away. Animal abusers
\ngenerally dismiss animal noises as simply that (noises) but scientists
\nwho have taken the time and trouble to listen carefully to the
\nextraordinary variety of noises made by whales have found that there are
\n patterns of what can only be described as speech which are repeated
\nfrom one year to another.<\/p>\n

It is generally assumed that parrots
\nmerely repeat words they have heard without understanding what they
\nmean. This is not true. Masson and McCarthy report how when psychologist
\n Irene Pepperberg left her parrot at the vet’s surgery for an operation
\nthe parrot, whose name was Alex, called out: Come here. I love you. I’m
\nsorry. I want to go back.’ The parrot clearly thought that he was being
\npunished for some crime he had committed. Another parrot, in New Jersey,
\n US saved the life of its owner by calling for help. Murder! Help! Come
\nquick!’ cried the parrot. When neighbours ran to the scene of the crime
\nthey found the parrot’s owner lying on the floor, unconscious, bleeding
\nfrom a gash in his neck. The doctor who treated the man said that
\nwithout the parrot’s cries he would have died. The same parrot woke his
\nowner and neighbours when a fire started in the house next door. <\/p>\n

How
\n arrogant the animal abusers are to assume that human beings are the
\nonly species capable of communicating with one another, and of
\nformulating a formal system of language. Vivisectors frequently laugh at
\n the animals they torture and abuse. The concentration camp guards in
\nthe Second World War laughed at their victims and called them lice and
\nrats. The vivisectors talk about sending a mouse to college’ when they
\nwant to raise funds for experiments. <\/p>\n

We have the power to do what we will with creatures of other species. But no one has given us the right.<\/p>\n

Animals
\n feel complex emotions. But the animal abusers claim that because
\nanimals do not satisfy our human criteria for intelligence then animals
\ndo not deserve any sympathy or understanding. It is but one step from
\nthis to arguing that unintelligent humans can be used for experiments.<\/p>\n

Human
\n beings who have taken the time to do so have found that they have been
\nable to communicate well with chimpanzees and numerous other animals.
\nPrimates will often strive to make the peace after a hostile encounter.
\nAnd uninvolved primates may help begin and cement the reconciliation.
\nAnd yet vivisectors are given legal licences allowing them to do
\nhorrific things to these animals. Who gave human beings the right to
\nhand out licences to torture? <\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>

<\/font>Capable Of Love<\/font>
<\/u><\/b>
Animals,
\n like people, are capable of loving their partner, their families, their
\n children, their leaders, their teachers, their friends and others who
\nare important to them. An ape will show exactly the same signs of love
\nand affection when dealing with her baby as a human mother will when
\ndealing with her baby. Both will look longingly, tickle and play with
\ntheir baby. Both feed their young, wash them, risk their lives for them
\nand put up with their noise and unruly behaviour.<\/p>\n

Anyone who
\ndoubts that animals love their young should stand outside a farm yard
\nwhen a calf has been taken away from a cow and listen to the heart
\nbreaking cries of anguish which result. Who knows what inner anguish
\naccompanies those cries from a creature who does not normally vocalise
\nin the same way that other animals do.<\/p>\n

Even fish will risk their
\nlives to protect their young. In his seminal work The Universal Kinship’
\n (first published in 1906 and now largely forgotten) J. Howard Moore
\ndescribed how he put his hand into a pond near the nest of a perch. The
\ncourageous fish guarding the nest chased Moore’s hand away several times
\n and when Moore’s hand was not removed quickly enough would nip it
\nvigorously several times.<\/p>\n

Lewis Gompertz, who lived from 1779 to
\n1861 and was a potent champion of the rights of blacks, women and the
\npoor (and, indeed, all oppressed human beings) was also a powerful
\nchampion of animals and was a founder of the Royal Society for the
\nPrevention of Cruelty to Animals. (His credibility is, I feel,
\ndramatically enhanced by the knowledge that quite early on he was forced
\n out of the society). In his book Moral Inquiries On the Situation Of
\nMan And Of Brutes’ Gompertz wrote: From some birds we may learn real
\nconstancy in conjugal affection, though in most instances their
\ncontracts only last for one season, but how strict do they keep this.
\nThey have no laws, no parchments, no parsons, no fear to injuring their
\ncharacters, not even their own words to break in being untrue to each
\nother: but their virtue is their laws, their parchments, their parsons,
\nand the reputation; their deeds are their acts, their acts – their
\ndeeds: and from their own breasts do they honestly tear down to line the
\n beds of their legitimate offspring.’<\/p>\n

Gompertz described an
\nincident illustrating the wisdom of blackbirds. I observed a male
\nblackbird flying about in an extreme state of agitation,’ he wrote. And
\non my going to discover the cause of it, the bird retreated from me as I
\n followed it, till it stopped at a nest containing a female bird sitting
\n upon her eggs, near which there was a cat: in consequence of this I
\nremoved the cat, and the bird became quiet. After that, whenever the cat
\n was about the place, the blackbird would come near my window, and would
\n in the same manner direct me to some sport where the cat happened to be
\n stationed.’<\/p>\n

Gompertz also wrote about a male blackbird which had
\n attacked a cat which had caught its female partner and wrote about
\nthree true incidents which illustrated animal kindness and wisdom. The
\nfirst concerned two goats which had met one another on a narrow path
\nbetween two precipices. There was no room for the two goats to turn or
\npass and so one of the goats lay down, allowing the other to walk over
\nit. The second incident involved a horse who had been hurt by a nail
\nwhen he had been shod. Finding it painful to walk he had gone back to
\nthe farrier and shown him his hoof. The third incident involved a sheep
\ndog who jumped into freezing cold water and successfully rescued another
\n dog which had been floating on a lump of ice. I would now fain ask,’
\nwrote Gompertz, if all this does not show reason and virtue?’<\/p>\n

J.
\nHoward Moore described how monkeys may adopt the orphans of deceased
\nmembers of their tribe and how two crows fed a third crow which was
\nwounded. The wound was several weeks old and the two crows had clearly
\nbeen playing good Samaritans’ for that time. <\/p>\n

Darwin wrote about a
\n blind pelican which was fed with fish which were brought to it by
\npelican friends who normally lived thirty miles away. Strong males in a
\nherd of vicunas will lag behind to protect the weaker and slower members
\n of their herd from possible predators.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/font>Powerful Memories<\/font>
<\/u><\/b>
Many
\n creatures have memories which humans might envy. Ants retrace their
\nsteps after long journeys and can recognise friends after months of
\nseparation. When a limpet has finished roaming it will return to the
\nexact spot on the same rock where it had been settled previously. Birds
\nfly back year after year to the same nesting spots – to within the inch.
\n Fish, too, return to the same stretch of water to hatch their young.
\nHorses used in delivery routes frequently know exactly where and when to
\n stop – and for how long. Squirrels who have buried nuts months before
\ncan find them without hesitating. <\/p>\n

J. Howard Moore reported that
\nan elephant obeyed all his old words of command on being recaptured
\nafter fifteen years of freedom in the jungle and a lion recognised its
\nkeeper after seven years of separation. A snake which was carried a
\nhundred miles away from home managed to find its way back.<\/p>\n

There
\nis plenty of evidence, too, to show that many creatures other than human
\n beings have powerful imaginations. Spiders will hold down the edges of
\ntheir webs with stones to steady them during gales which have not yet
\nstarted. Does this show an ability to predict the weather or
\nimagination? Cats, dogs and horses and many other creatures dream.
\nParrots talk in their sleep.<\/p>\n

Horses frequently stampede because
\nthey are frightened by objects (such as large rocks or posts) which are
\nno threat to them. This must show a sense of imagination because the
\nhorse, like a child, has created a terror out of nothing.<\/p>\n

A cat playing with a ball of wool is imagining that it is playing with its prey.<\/p>\n

We
\n always tend to think the worst of animals (and other creatures). We
\nassume that they are stupid and our interpretation of their behaviour is
\n based upon that ill-founded prejudice. It is, for example, generally
\nassumed that the ostrich sticks its head in the sand in the assumption
\nthat when it cannot see the rest of the world, the rest of the world
\ncannot see it. But where is the evidence for this theory? Could it not
\nbe equally possible that the ostrich sticks its head in the sand because
\n it cannot bear what there is to view in the world around it? When a
\nhuman being covers his or her eyes to avoid looking at a horrific
\naccident we do not say that they believe that they can’t be seen.<\/p>\n



<\/font>Love<\/font><\/u><\/b>
<\/strong>
Before
\n slavery was abolished black people who fell in love were regarded as
\nenjoying simple animal lust’ as a result of animal attraction’. Who on
\nearth (or, indeed, in heaven) gave us the right to make such judgements
\nabout black people or animals? When black people formed life long pairs
\nthis was dismissed as nothing more than an a response to an instinct’.
\nThe same thing is said about animals (with just as little evidence to
\nsupport it). Who gives humans the right to argue that animals do not
\nshow emotions? Animal abusers sneer and say that animals which seem to
\nshow love are merely acting according instinct. But who says? Where is
\nthe evidence for this claim? Why do animal abusers have the right to
\nmake statements with no evidence whatsoever in support? Why don’t the
\nanimal abusers follow a consistent line and argue that human mothers who
\n show love for their human babies are merely following their instincts?
\n(Of course, people change their views when it suits them. Even
\nvivisectors and hunters, who claim that animals have no feelings, will
\noften claim to be loved by their companion dogs and cats.)<\/p>\n

There
\nare numerous well authenticated stories of animals risking their lives
\nto save their loved ones. And animals will put their own safety second
\nto protect their friends. One herd of elephants was seen always to
\ntravel unusually slowly. Observers noted that the herd travelled slowly
\nso as not to leave behind an elephant who had not fully recovered from a
\n broken leg. Another herd travelled slowly to accommodate a mother who
\nwas carrying her dead calf with her. When the herd stopped to eat or
\ndrink the mother would put her dead calf down. When they started
\ntravelling she would pick up the dead calf. The rest of the herd were
\naccommodating her in her time of grief. Gorillas too have been seen to
\ntravel slowly if one of their number is injured and unable to move
\nquickly. Remember this unquestioning generosity next time you are
\ntrapped in the midst of a crowd of humans travelling by car, train or
\naeroplane.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>
<\/font>Altruistic Behaviour<\/font>
<\/b>
<\/u>Animals
\n don’t just show love; they frequently exhibit behaviour that can only
\nbe described as altruistic. Old lionesses who have lost their teeth and
\ncan no longer bear young are, theoretically, of no value to the rest of
\nthe pride. But the younger lions will share their kills with them.
\nYoung, agile chimpanzees will climb trees to fetch fruit for their older
\n relatives. Foxes have been observed bringing food to adult, injured
\nfoxes. When one fox was injured by a mowing machine and taken to a vet
\nby a human observer the fox’s sister took food to the spot where the
\ninjured fox had lain. The good Samaritan sister fox made the whimpering
\nsound that foxes use when summoning cubs to eat (even though she had no
\ncubs).<\/p>\n

Animals have been known to give food to hungry humans.
\nKoko, the gorilla who learned to communicate with humans through sign
\nlanguage, gave medical advice to a human woman who complained of
\nindigestion. Koko told the woman to drink orange juice. When the human
\nrevisited ten days later and offered Koko a drink of orange juice Koko
\nwould not accept the drink until assured that the woman felt better.
\nWhales have been observed to ask for and receive help from other whales.
\n J. Howard Moore describes how crabs struggled for some time to turn
\nover another crustacean which had fallen onto its back. When the crabs
\ncouldn’t manage by themselves they went and fetched two other crabs to
\nhelp them. A gander who acted as a guardian to his blind partner would
\ntake her neck gently in his mouth and lead her to the water when she
\nwanted to swim. Afterwards he would lead her home in the same manner.
\nWhen goslings were hatched the gander, realising that the mother would
\nnot be able to cope, looked after them himself. Pigs will rush to defend
\n one of their number who is being attacked. When wild geese are feeding
\none will act as sentinel – never taking a grain of corn while on duty.
\nWhen the sentinel geese has been on watch for a while it pecks at a
\nnearby goose and hands over the responsibility for guarding the group.
\nWhen swans dive there is usually one which stays above the water to
\nwatch out for danger. Time and time again dogs have pined and died on
\nbeing separated from their masters or mistresses. Animals can suffer,
\nthey can communicate and they can care.<\/p>\n

A Border collie woke a
\nyoung mother from a deep sleep and led her to her baby’s cot. The baby
\nwas choking on mucus and had stopped breathing. What is any of this but
\ncompassion? How can animal abusers regard themselves as sentient when
\nthey mistreat animals who can feel this way? <\/p>\n

Konrad Lorenz
\ndescribed the behaviour of a gander called Ado when his mate
\nSusanne-Elisabeth was killed by a fox. Ado stood by Susanne-Elisabeth’s
\nbody in mourning. He hung his head and his body was hunched. He didn’t
\nbother to defend himself when attacked by strange geese. How would the
\nanimal abusers describe such behaviour other than as sorrow born of
\nlove? There is no survival value in mourning. It can only be a
\nmanifestation of a clear emotional response – love.<\/p>\n

A badger was
\nseen to drag another badger which had been killed by a car off the road,
\n along a hedge, through a gap and into a burial spot in nearby woods.<\/p>\n

Coyotes
\n form pairs before they become sexually active – and then stay together.
\n One observer watched a female coyote licking her partner’s face after
\nthey had made love. They then curled up and went to sleep. Geese, swans
\nand mandarin ducks have all been described as enjoying long-term
\nrelationships.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vanity And Self Consciousness<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Animals
\n have also been known to show vanity, self-consciousness, embarrassment
\nand other allegedly exclusively human emotions. Masson and McCarthy
\nreported that chimpanzees have been observed using a TV video monitor to
\n watch themselves make faces – the chimpanzees were able to distinguish
\nbetween a live image and taped image by testing to see if their actions
\nwere duplicated on the screen. Chimpanzees have even managed to use a
\nvideo monitor to apply make-up to themselves (this is a difficult trick
\nto learn for humans). One chimpanzee has been reported to have used a
\nvideo camera and monitor to look down his throat – using a flashlight to
\n help the process. <\/p>\n

As for vanity: .males (baboons) with worn or
\nbroken teeth yawn less than male baboons with teeth in good condition –
\nunless there are no other males around in which case they yawn just as
\noften,’ wrote Masson and McCarthy.<\/p>\n

One gorilla who had a number
\nof toy dolls used sign language to send kisses to her favourite puppets
\nand dolls. But every time she realised that she was being watched she
\nstopped playing.<\/p>\n

When a bottlenose porpoise accidentally bit her
\ntrainer’s hand she became hideously embarrassed’, went to the bottom of
\nher tank, with her snout in a corner, and wouldn’t come out until the
\ntrainer made it clear that she wasn’t cross. <\/p>\n

Jane Goodall has
\nreported that wild chimpanzees can show embarrassment and shame and may,
\n also, show off to other animals whom they want to impress. (One
\nchimpanzee who fell while showing off was clearly embarrassed).<\/p>\n

Many
\n people who live with cats will have noticed that if the cat falls off a
\n piece of furniture it will appear embarrassed – often beginning to wash
\n itself as though making it clear that the embarrassing incident didn’t
\nreally happen at all. Elephant keepers report that when elephants are
\nlaughed at they will respond by filling their trunks with water and
\nspraying the mockers. And many dog owners have reported that their
\nanimals have made it clear that they know that they have done wrong. For
\n example a dog which feels it has done something wrong may go into a
\nsubmissive position before the owner knows that the animal has done
\nsomething bad’. <\/p>\n


<\/font>Artistic Animals<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

There
\n are many myths about animals and the animal abusers tell many lies in
\nan attempt to belittle the skills that animals have. It is, for example,
\n sometimes said by animal abusers that animals cannot see in colour.
\nThis is a nonsense. Four sheep who lived with me, who were accustomed to
\n being fed from an orange bucket would come running across a field if
\nthey saw the orange bucket. When I tried using a blue bucket they showed
\n absolutely no interest. The colour was the only significant difference
\nbetween the buckets. A chimpanzee has been observed staring at a
\nbeautiful sunset for fifteen minutes. Monkeys prefer looking at pictures
\n of monkeys to pictures of people and prefer looking at animated
\ncartoons rather than at still pictures.<\/p>\n

Gerald Durrell wrote
\nabout a pigeon who listened quietly to most music but who would stamp
\nbackwards and forwards when marches were being played and would twist
\nand bow, cooing softly, when waltzes were played. Dogs will alter their
\nhowling according to the other sounds they hear. One gorilla enjoyed the
\n singing of Luciano Pavarotti so much that he would refuse to go out of
\ndoors when a Pavarotti concert was being shown on television. Animal
\nabusers have for years dismissed bird song as merely mating calls. Who
\ncan say that birds do not sing to give themselves and others pleasure?<\/p>\n

An Indian elephant in a zoo used to split an apple into two and then rub the two halves onto the hay to flavour it.<\/p>\n

Numerous
\n apes have painted or drawn identifiable objects while in captivity. And
\n when a young Indian elephant was reported to have made numerous
\ndrawings (which were highly commended by artists who did not know that
\nthe artist was an animal) other zoo keepers reported that their
\nelephants often scribbled on the ground with sticks or stones. When one
\nAsian elephant got extra attention because of her paintings nearby
\nAfrican elephants used the ends of logs to draw on the walls of their
\nenclosure.<\/p>\n

The animal abusers invariably try to think the worst
\nwhen considering animal behaviour. When a bird takes bright objects to
\ndecorate its nest the animal abusers will claim that the bird doesn’t
\nreally know what it is doing. When a human being collects bird feathers
\nto decorate a room they are said to be showing artistic tendencies. <\/p>\n

Vivisectors,
\n and others who abuse animals, are blind to all this because they want
\nto be blind to it. Animal abuse is driven by economic need and there is
\nno place for sentiment and compassion when money is at stake.
\nVivisectors tear animals away from their partners, their friends and
\ntheir relatives with no regard for their feelings – or for the feelings
\nof the animals they have left behind.<\/p>\n

When animals are born in
\nzoos the keepers and jailers claim that this is evidence that the
\nanimals are happy. Would they also claim that the fact that babies were
\nborn in concentration camps is evidence that concentration camp inmates
\nwere happy? <\/p>\n

What trickery the animal abusers use in their sordid
\n attempts to excuse their brutality. Animals in captivity often die far
\nyounger than they would die if they were allowed to roam free. At one
\noceanarium a famous pilot whale was actually thirteen different pilot
\nwhales.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>
Smarter, Kinder, Better<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Many
\n other species – from families as varied as ants and dolphins – are
\nsmarter, kinder and better at creating societies which work than are
\nhuman beings.<\/p>\n

A survey showed that almost half of all the women
\nin one US city had been raped or subjected to attempted rape at least
\nonce in their lives. Just think of the torture performed by humans on
\nother humans. <\/p>\n

Animal abusers will leap on every example they can
\n find of apparent bad behaviour’ by animals and use that example to draw
\n far reaching conclusions about all animals. They ignore the fact that
\nthe bad behaviour’ to which they refer may well have been triggered by
\nhuman aggression.<\/p>\n

Do the animal abusers who leap upon one example
\n of bad animal behaviour as significant also suggest that because one
\nhuman murders, tortures or rapes we must all be judged by that
\nindividual? Are all human beings to be judged to be as barbaric and evil
\n as vivisectors? <\/p>\n

As I have described in my book Why Animal Experiments Must Stop<\/i>
\n experimenters have deliberately planned and executed experiments
\ndesigned to make animals feel depressed. When they have succeeded in
\nmaking animals depressed they have written up their experiments as
\nthough proud of themselves for having succeeded in their evil aims. What
\n possible purpose can there be in creating depression when there is
\nalready so much of it in the world? (And, incidentally, does not the
\nability of the experimental scientists to make’ animals feel depressed
\nprovide yet more proof that animals are sentient creatures?) <\/p>\n



Enjoying The Suffering<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

No
\n animal, other than the human animal, has ever deliberately performed
\nexperiments on another. No one animal, other than the human animal, has
\never deliberately tortured another being. <\/p>\n

Human beings are the
\nonly species who abuse one another (and members of other species) for
\npleasure. Human beings are the only species who torture. Only human
\nbeings chase and attack living creatures for fun – and for the pleasure
\nof watching the suffering.<\/p>\n

Contrary to myth, cats do not play’
\nwith animals for fun – it is part of their learning and training
\nprocess. Cats like to chase, to catch and then to kill. They kill so
\nthat they can eat and they need to practise their chasing skills. It is,
\n however, important to remember that a cat or a kitten will be just as
\nhappy chasing a ball of paper or a piece of string (particularly if it
\nis manipulated in an effective and lifelike manner). This shows that the
\n cat doesn’t chase and catch because it enjoys the suffering which is
\nproduced – how much fun’ could there possibly be in torturing’ a ball of
\n paper or a piece of string? <\/p>\n

Foxes are often criticised (by
\nthose who hunt them) on the grounds that they sometimes kill large
\nnumbers of hens. The implication is that the fox kills for pleasure. The
\n truth, however, is that, like other predators who may kill more than
\nthey can eat when they have the opportunity, foxes store the food they
\nhave killed.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Animals As Carers<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

In their excellent book When Elephants Weep<\/i>
\n Jeffrey Masson and Susan McCarthy report how a man called John Teal,
\nwho was working with endangered musk oxen, was at first alarmed when
\nsome dogs approached and the musk oxen snorted, stamped and thundered
\ntowards him. Before Mr Teal could move to escape, the oxen formed a
\ndefensive ring around him and lowered their horns at the dogs. It turned
\n out that the musk oxen were protecting their new human friend in
\nexactly the same way that they would protect their calves from
\npredators. <\/p>\n

Animals have even been reported to have pets of their
\n own. A chimpanzee who was thought to be lonely was given a kitten as a
\ncompanion. The chimpanzee groomed the kitten, carried it about with her
\nand protected it from harm. A gorilla called Koko had a kitten companion
\n which she herself named All Ball. An elephant was seen to routinely put
\n aside some grain for a mouse to eat. Race horses who have had goat
\ncompanions have failed to run as expected when separated from their
\nfriends.<\/p>\n

\"Elephants
A Sense Of Fun<\/font><\/u><\/b>
Human beings are not the only animals to have a sense of humour and fun and to enjoy playing.<\/p>\n

Masson and McCarthy, in When Elephants Weep,<\/i>
\n report that foxes will tease hyenas by going close to them and then
\nrunning away. Ravens tease peregrine falcons by flying close and closer
\nto them. Grebes tweak the tails of dignified swans and then dive to
\nescape. I have watched lambs play their own version of King of the
\nCastle’ (and many other games customarily played by children). A monkey
\nhas been seen to pass his hand behind a second monkey so that he could
\ntweak the tail of a third monkey. When the third monkey remonstrated
\nwith the second monkey the first monkey, the practical joker, was
\nclearly enjoying himself.<\/p>\n

When scientists examined the dung of
\nlions the lions dug up the latrine the humans had been using – and
\ninspected the contents. Ants, fish, birds, cats, dogs, sheep, horses,
\nmonkeys, porpoises and many other creatures play.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Barbaric Abuse Of Sensitive Creatures<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Animals
\n frequently make friends across the species barriers. There is much
\nevidence showing that animals have helped animals belonging to a
\ndifferent species. Why do we have to be the only species to abuse all
\nother creatures? Is our cruelty to other creatures really to be regarded
\n as a sign of our wisdom, superiority and civilisation? What arrogance
\nwe show in the way we treat animals. Where is our humility and sense of
\nrespect? Animals have passionate relationships with one another, they
\nexhibit clear signs of love, they develop social lives which are every
\nbit as complex as our own. By what right do we treat them with such
\ncontempt? Those who torture and kill animals have to claim that animals
\nhave no feelings – otherwise they would be admitting that they
\nthemselves have acted cruelly.<\/p>\n

But how they can continue to do
\nthis when there is so much scientific evidence to prove that they are
\nutterly wrong? Those who torture and kill insist on being allowed to
\ncontinue to torture and kill because they know that if they stop they
\nwill have to admit that they have spent their lives in the barbaric
\nabuse of sensitive creatures.<\/p>\n

No one with any intelligence or
\nsensitivity of their own can possibly doubt that animals are capable of
\nsuffering. Animal experimenters and abattoir workers degrade us all and
\ndiminish our worth as a species.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Better Than Animals?<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

The
\n animal abusers will frequently argue that since human beings can speak
\nforeign languages and do algebraic equations they are inevitably better’
\n than animals. What nonsense this is. Does this mean that humans who
\ncannot speak foreign languages or do algebraic equations are not
\nentitled to be treated with respect? And who decides which are the
\nskills deserving of respect? If we decide that the ability to fly, run
\nat 30 mph, see in the dark or swim under water for long distances are
\nthe skills worthy of respect there wouldn’t be many human beings
\nqualifying for respect.<\/p>\n

Cats can find their way home without map
\nor compass when abandoned hundreds of miles away in strange territory.
\nHow many human beings could do the same? How many humans could spin a
\nweb or build a honeycomb?<\/p>\n

We owe it to animals to treat them with
\n respect and, at the very least, to leave them alone to live their lives
\n on this earth free from our harm. Darwin wrote that there is no
\nfundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their
\nmental faculties’. He also argued that the senses and intuition, the
\nvarious emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention,
\ncuriosity, imitation, reason etc of which man boasts, may be found in an
\n incipient, or sometimes even well-developed condition in the lower’
\nanimals.’ <\/p>\n

Turtles have been observed learning a route from one
\nplace to another. To begin with they make lots of mistakes, go down cul
\nde sacs and miss short cuts. But after a while they can reduce their
\njourney time dramatically. Birds, which might normally be alarmed by the
\n slightest noise, learn to ignore the noise of trains and cars when they
\n build their nests near to railway lines or busy roads. Even oysters are
\n capable of learning. Oysters which live in the deep sea know that they
\ncan open and shut their shells at any time without risk. But oysters
\nwhich live in a tidal area learn to keep their shells closed when the
\ntide is out – so that they don’t dry out and die. This might not quite
\nrank alongside writing a classic novel but how many human beings can
\nwrite classic novels?<\/p>\n

Animals use reason and experience to help
\nthem survive and they exhibit all of the skills which the animal abusers
\n like to think of as being exclusively human.<\/p>\n

All animals
\naccumulate information which helps them to survive and live more
\ncomfortably. Moreover, they do it just as man does – by discriminating
\nbetween useful and useless information and by memorising information
\nwhich is of value. A puppy who has been burnt on a hot stove will keep
\naway from it just as surely as a child who has suffered a similarly
\nunpleasant experience. Older fish learn to be wary of lures – and become
\n far more difficult to catch than young ones. Rats learn how to avoid
\ntraps, and birds learn where telephone wires are strung (so that they
\ndon’t fly into them). Arctic seals used to live on inner ice floes to
\navoid the polar bears but after man arrived and proved to be a worse
\nenemy they started living on the outer ice floes. Many animals know that
\n they can be followed by their scent and act accordingly. A hunted deer
\nor hare will run round in circles, double back on its own tracks, go
\nthrough water and leap into the air in order to lose its pursuers. <\/p>\n

Flocks of parrots will send an advance scouting party ahead to check out that all is well.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>
Animals As Teachers<\/font><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

There
\n is no doubt, too, that animals actively teach their young in order to
\npass on skills which the animal abusers generally regard as being
\nnothing more than instinct’. I have watched an adult cat giving lessons
\nto orphan kittens for which he had taken responsibility. The adult cat,
\nteaching the art of stalking, would edge forwards and then stop and look
\n over his shoulder to see if the kittens were following in the correct
\nstyle. After the lesson had gone on for some time the kittens started
\nplaying behind the adult cat’s back. They got away with it for a couple
\nof times but on the third occasion the adult cat saw them. He reached
\nback and gave them both a clip with an outstretched paw. The kittens
\nweren’t hurt but they paid attention again.<\/p>\n

We tend to ignore the
\n actions of other creatures because we don’t have the time to watch what
\n they do. But even the seemingly lowly ant has a complex and
\nsophisticated life style. Ants can communicate with one another and
\nrecognise their friends. They will clean one another, they play, they
\nbury their dead, they store grain, they even clear land, manure it, sow
\ngrain and harvest the grass which they have grown. <\/p>\n

When animal
\nabusers hear about this sort of behaviour they dismiss it as nothing
\nmore than instinct. But is it? If a Martian looked down on earth and
\nwatched us rushing about on our routine daily work would he perhaps be
\ntempted to describe us as incapable of original thought and responding
\nonly to instinct? We may not like it but many races of non human beings
\nhave a much greater influence on their environment than we have. There
\nare still tribes of men who live almost naked in very crude huts and
\nwhose social structures are relatively primitive when compared to, say,
\nthe beavers who cut down trees, transport them long distances, dam
\nrivers, construct substantial homes and dig artificial waterways. Ants
\nplant crops and build roads and tunnels. Birds build astonishingly
\nbeautiful nests from the simplest of materials. <\/p>\n

Animal abusers
\nclaim that man is the only animal to use tools. But this simply isn’t
\ntrue. Even insects use tools – using small stones to pack the dirt
\nfirmly over and around their nests. Spiders use stones to keep their
\nwebs steady when the weather is stormy. Orangutans and baboons use
\nsticks and stones as weapons. Monkeys use stones to help them crack
\nnuts. In one zoo a monkey who had poor teeth kept (and guarded) a stone
\nhidden in its straw for nut cracking. That monkey had a tool which it
\nregarded as its own property. Chimpanzees drum on hollow logs with
\nsticks. Monkeys know how to use sticks as levers. The Indian elephant
\nwill break off a leafy branch and use it to sweep away the flies. Ants
\nknow how to keep grain in a warm, moist atmosphere without the grain
\nsprouting. The honeycomb and the bird’s nest are wonders of
\narchitecture. Insect communities practise true and decent socialism.<\/p>\n

The wonders are unending. <\/p>\n

Animals
\n are often curious and determined and hard working; loving and loyal and
\n faithful. (But they do not harm themselves with tobacco and alcohol.)<\/p>\n

We
\n do not understand how a cat which has been taken a hundred miles away
\nfrom its home (in a closed bag) can find its way back again. <\/p>\n

But
\n animal abusers will sew up the cat’s eyes, plant electrodes into its
\nhead and subject it to unimaginable pain and suffering in their search
\nfor personal glory.<\/p>\n

The eagle and the vulture have eyes as
\npowerful as a telescope. The swallow will travel thousands of miles
\nevery spring, only to be trapped and shot by a Maltese hunter when it
\ndares to land for water. <\/p>\n

Many animals, birds and insects can
\npredict the coming of storms far more effectively than our allegedly
\nscientific weather forecasters. <\/p>\n

Weight for weight the tomtit has more brain capacity than a human being. <\/p>\n

The
\n animal abusers claim that animals cannot reason. But it is clear that
\nit is the animal abusers who find reason a difficult concept. <\/p>\n

The
\n facts are abundantly clear: animals are sentient creatures. As J.Howard
\n Moore put it: The human species constitutes but one branch in the
\ngigantic arbour of life.’ <\/p>\n

How cruel and vicious a species we
\nmust look to lobsters who are boiled alive, to donkeys who are beaten
\nbeyond their endurance and to all farm animals. Not all men are humane. <\/p>\n

Man
\n is the most drunken, selfish, bloodthirsty, miserly, greedy,
\nhypocritical being on the planet. And yet we think ourselves so damned
\nsuperior. Man is the only being on the planet to kill for the sake of
\nkilling; to dress up and turn killing into a social pastime.<\/p>\n

The animal abusers sneer at hyenas but they do not kill for fun. <\/p>\n

Only man gloats over the accumulation of material goods which he does not truly need. <\/p>\n

No
\n creature is as immoral as the animal abuser. Only man needs an army of
\nlawyers to fight over what is right and wrong. Only man has forgotten
\nthe meaning of natural justice. <\/p>\n

We have created a hell on this
\nearth for other creatures. Our abuse of animals is the final savagery,
\nthe final outrage of mankind in a long history of savagery and outrage.
\nWe have colonised other species in the same way that White Northern
\nEuropeans colonised other parts of the world. Instead of learning from
\nother animals, instead of attempting to communicate with them, we simply
\n thrash around wickedly, abusing, torturing, tormenting and killing. We
\ndestroy the relationships of animals with one another, with their
\nenvironment and with our own race. We diminish ourselves in a hundred
\ndifferent ways through our cruelty and our ignorance and our
\nthoughtlessness. Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn
\n and his inhumanity to not-men makes the planet a ball of pain and
\nterror,’ wrote J.Howard Moore.<\/p>\n

If man was truly the master of the
\n universe he would use his wisdom and his power to increase the comfort
\nand happiness of all other sentient creatures. Sadly, tragically, man
\nhas used his wisdom and his power to increase the misery of other
\nsentient creatures. Animal abusers imprison millions of animals in cruel
\n and heartbreaking conditions and ignore their cries of pain and
\ndistress on the grounds that animals are not sentient creatures’. What
\nself-delusional nonsense this is.<\/p>\n

Sheep and cattle are left out
\nin huge fields in cold, wet weather. They shiver and search in vain for
\nshelter because all the trees and hedgerows have been removed to make
\nthe farm more efficient. The animal abusing farmer cares not one jot for
\n animals: he cares only for his profits.<\/p>\n

It is quite simply just
\nas immoral to regard animals as existing for the glorification of man as
\n it is to regard black men or women as existing to serve white men.<\/p>\n

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things,’ wrote Albert Schweizer, man will not himself find peace.<\/strong>‘ <\/p>\n

The merciful man is kind to all creatures.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/font>Taken from Animal Rights Human Wrongs<\/em> by Vernon Coleman

Posted by<\/em><\/font><\/strong> Living “Cruelty-Free!”<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/a>
<\/strong>
<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advocate for Saving Dogs\u2122 Animal Rights \u2665We\u2665Are\u2665All\u2665Connected\u2665The Big Fat Wicked Lie People Tell About Animals Vernon Coleman Vivisectors, hunters, butchers and farmers excuse the cruel way they treat animals by claiming (falsely) that animals don’t have feelings. This is a lie.A big fat wicked lie which excuses a thousand cruelties.The truth, as anyone who is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}