Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed: The Fascinating Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation
400
Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed: The Fascinating Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation
400eBook
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| ISBN-13: | 9781608682201 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New World Library |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| File size: | 863 KB |
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Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed
The Fascinating Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation
By Marc Bekoff
New World Library
Copyright © 2013 Marc BekoffAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60868-220-1
CHAPTER 1
What in the World Do My Essays Have to Do with Psychology?
Every now and again I receive personal emails about my essays asking what if anything my day's subject has to do with human psychology. A few people have not so politely asked me to stop writing because they see no relevance whatsoever to their interests. Presumably, these people must assume all Psychology Today readers agree with their views. However, other people write and thank me for making them think more about who other animals are and, consequently, who we are. Yet even positive comments often include the same question — "What in the world do my essays have to do with psychology?"
To me, it's crystal clear that knowing about the incredible lives of nonhuman animals, their emotions and behavior, has everything to do with many aspects of human psychology. One only has to look, for example, at the online comments to my Psychology Today essays. These show clearly how our interactions with other animals reflect and affect human attitudes, beliefs, and desires. Essays that sparked a wealth of revealing comments include "Rampant Wolf Killing Makes Some People Happy" (posted November 1, 2011), "Is Eating Dogs Different from Eating Cows and Pigs?" (page 262), "Going 'Cold Tofu' to End Factory Farming" (page 252), and "Tilly's Willy: In the Name of Science?" (page 225), to name a few.
The more we know about how other animals are sentient beings who experience unbounded joy and deep pain and suffering, and even extreme psychological disorders like PTSD, the more it raises human moral and ethical questions. We should really care about what happens to nonhuman animals, but often we don't, or we don't care enough to change our actions. What is the appropriate response when we learn that over 99 percent of animals used in scientific research are not protected by the Federal Animal Welfare Act, or that billions of sentient animals are mercilessly slaughtered for unneeded meals, or that animals are often still terribly abused in the name of entertainment? Urban animals are mercilessly killed when we freely move into their homes and living rooms. To me, recognizing how our intrusions into the lives of animals has made life very tough on them should foster efforts at coexistence. I have a friend, a red fox, who regularly comes by to say hello to me each morning (see photo below). He hangs out near my office and offers deep inspiration. He is just one of the many fascinating animals with whom I share my home.
What we know, think, feel, and believe about animals forms part of our human psychology. Research clearly shows that our attitudes about and relationships with other animals affect us, for good and ill. Consider, for example, the excellent research of my colleague Hal Herzog, who has written the book Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat and also writes for Psychology Today online (www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us). He's part of the growing field of conservation psychology (http://conservationpsychology.org), which is defined as "the scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world." Of course, animals are a major component of the natural world. A summary of research in this field can be found in Susan Clayton and Gene Myers's outstanding book Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature. Changing our attitudes and beliefs about other animals really is a social movement, and that by definition involves human society and psychology. (For more on this, see books by Nick Cooney and Thomas Ryan in the Bibliography, page 357.)
While my Psychology Today blog is a constant meditation on why all animals matter, here are three primary reasons why learning about the nature and importance of the human-animal bond is so important to us.
• Gaining knowledge about our interrelationships with animals is incredibly important for learning not only about who they are as individuals but also for learning about who we are as big-brained, big-footed, overproducing, overconsuming, and invasive mammals. I don't mean this description in a pejorative way. That's really who we are as a species. And as our population soars we will interact with other animals even more, even if we don't want to or realize it's happening.
• Whether or not we realize it, and our behavior all too often indicates we don't, animals are a vital part of our daily lives. We are constantly factoring them into decisions about how we choose to live in the world. People all over the world are showing increasing interest in learning how to coexist with other animals — when taking them into our homes as companions, when living in close proximity to them, and when considering how to conserve what little of the precious natural world remains. Recognizing how the well-being of all beings is closely tied together will make it easier for us to choose to coexist. It's a win-win situation. All animals will benefit as we human animals learn more about the common bonds we depend on.
• When we realize how influential and deeply meaningful our close and reciprocal connections with other animals are, and when we accept other animals for who they are — as sentient, intelligent, emotional, and moral beings — we will feel compelled to treat them better. We will offer other animals more compassion and empathy in the numerous venues in which we interact (as food and clothing and in research, education, and entertainment). Mounting evidence shows that we (and they) are basically good and well-meaning individuals, and we must harness these positive traits to develop compassionate regulations and laws. These not only affect their well-being but ours. These practical aspects associated with learning more about the nature and strength of human-animal bonds are to some the most urgent reason for developing human-animal study programs.
We simply can't go on intruding into the lives of other animals as if they don't matter. We lose when they lose. For all practical purposes, we can do just about anything we want to other animals. They're merely property in the eyes of the law and enjoy little to no legal standing, which varies from one situation to another. This, in and of itself, tells us lots about human psychology.
[ORIGINALLY POSTED ON NOVEMBER 11, 2011]
CHAPTER 2Animals in Our Brain: Mickey Mouse, Teddy Bears, and "Cuteness"
There's never a shortage of new studies about nonhuman animals and human-animal interactions. A 2011 study is well worth noting as it bears on a number of very interesting issues concerning how we perceive other animals. The study shows that a specific part of the human brain is hardwired to detect animals, regardless of whether they're cute, ugly, or dangerous, and this reminded me of two older studies that examine "cuteness" itself and the physical features we associate with it.
An article about the 2011 California Institute of Technology and UCLA study said researchers found that "a specific part of your brain ... is hardwired to rapidly detect creatures of the nonhuman kind." Most interestingly, "neurons throughout the amygdala — a center in the brain known for processing emotional reactions — respond preferentially to images of animals." That is, given a choice of stimuli, we respond first to animals.
There are two other notable aspects of this research: (1) the response of cells in the amygdala is independent of the emotional content of the pictures — we respond first to all animals, whether they are cute, ugly, or dangerous. And (2) only cells in the right amygdala were responsive to seeing animals, which is called hemispheric asymmetry. According to the article, "This striking hemispheric asymmetry helps strengthen previous findings supporting the idea that, early on in vertebrate evolution, the right hemisphere became specialized in dealing with unexpected and biologically relevant stimuli, or with changes in the environment." One researcher said, "In terms of brain evolution, the amygdala is a very old structure, and throughout our biological history, animals — which could represent either predators or prey — were a highly relevant class of stimuli."
This study about how we're hardwired to respond to animals made me think of earlier researchers who found that seeing emotional qualities in certain physical features is also hardwired. Renowned and eclectic scientist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a fascinating essay called "Mickey Mouse Meets Konrad Lorenz" in which he looked at why we find certain animals cute. In this paper Gould followed up on Nobel Laureate Lorenz's research showing that "humans feel affection for animals with juvenile features: large eyes, bulging craniums, retreating chins. Small-eyed, long-snouted animals do not elicit the same response."
As an example, Gould traced the evolution of Mickey Mouse: "As Mickey became increasingly well behaved over the years, his appearance became more youthful. Measurements of three stages in his development revealed a larger relative head size, larger eyes, and an enlarged cranium — all traits of juvenility." Researchers Robert Hinde and L. A. Barden likewise discovered that during the twentieth century teddy bears went from having long legs and a stubby nose to having stubbier noses and higher foreheads, juvenile traits that Lorenz discovered were called "cute." According to merchants Hinde and Barden spoke with, people increasingly preferred "cute" bears, so teddy bears evolved because of consumer pressure.
This research on how animals are perceived seems directly related to how human babies are perceived. Lorenz called the attractive "cuteness" qualities the "baby schema" (kindchenschema), which includes "a set of infantile physical features, such as round face and big eyes, that is perceived as cute and motivates caretaking behavior in the human, with the evolutionary function of enhancing offspring survival." We clearly respond to animals in all sorts of ways. These studies open the door for more fascinating studies into where and how we process animals in our big brains and where the neuroanatomical basis for "cuteness" and other traits lie. This is important because how we treat other animals is related to how we perceive and label them. Perhaps down the road we'll discover differences in how brains process animals when comparing humans who are more or less concerned with the well-being of nonhuman beings. Perhaps there are differences among people who choose to "rewild their heart" and those who don't.
We really have so much still to learn about the nature of human-animal interactions, and that's why this is such an exciting interdisciplinary field of study. Researchers in radically different areas need to talk with one another and share their fascinating findings.
[ORIGINALLY POSTED ON DECEMBER 22, 2011]
CHAPTER 3Conservation Psychology and Animal and Human Well-Being: Scientists Must Pay Attention to the Social Sciences
Our relationships with animals are frustrating, challenging, and paradoxical. They range all over the place. We love animals and harm them in a myriad of ways, and many people wonder not only why we continue to do this but what we can do to treat animals better.
It's rarely a lack of knowledge and concrete data that result in animal abuse and in the unprecedented losses of biodiversity in what is called the "anthropocene," a latter part of the "sixth extinction" — to which we are the major contributors. Massive losses of biodiversity are a form of animal abuse, but few people cash it out this way. Animal abuse and losses in biodiversity are bad for the animals and bad for us.
We know that animals have rich and deep emotional lives and some may be moral beings (see "Wild Justice and Moral Intelligence in Animals," page 195). Abuse is typically due to the inadequate protection of animals as well as to social and cultural factors. Therefore, we must address the important psychological and social/cultural issues that support our poor stewardship of animals (and their habitats). We must learn about the psychological barriers that prevent people from facing and addressing the complex, frustrating, and urgent issues that allow animal abuse to continue in laboratories, classrooms, various forms of entertainment, and in slaughterhouses and the clothing industry. It's here that the social sciences can help us along (the importance of the social sciences in dealing with climate change can serve as a nice model).
A relatively new and rapidly emerging field called conservation psychology (http://conservationpsychology.org) can help us improve our relationships with other animals. Conservation psychology is defined as "the scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world.... This applied field uses psychological principles, theories, or methods to understand and solve issues related to human aspects of conservation." A 2009 book by Susan Clayton and Gene Myers called Conservation Psychology provides an excellent review of the field.
Here are some important questions and areas that need to be addressed:
• Why do we ignore animal suffering and what nature is telling us?
• What allows us to override innate feelings of biophilia and our love of living systems?
• How do people think about and make personal connections to the natural environment?
• What can we do to improve the attitudes of children toward animals and conservation? It's clear we need to teach the children well.
• What is the relationship between biodiversity and human well-being?
• How can we use psychology to save biodiversity?
• How can humane education be a precursor to attitude change in conservation behavior?
Denver University's Institute for Human-Animal Connection (www.humananimalconnection.org) is a model program that can help to answer these and other questions. It's also the first program of its kind within a human services academic setting.
Part of recognizing that changing how we treat animals is part of a social movement and doesn't only depend on scientific data is to get scientists to act as concerned citizens. As an excellent opinion piece in New Scientist said, "We need another kind of scientist to save the world." We as citizens must also act as responsible stewards.
People who care about animals and nature do not have to be apologists for their views. They should not be considered "the radicals" or "bad guys" who are trying to impede "human progress." In fact, they could be seen as heroes who are not only fighting for animals but for humanity.
Biodiversity enables human life; it is imperative that all of humanity reconnects with what sustains the ability of our species to persist. In turn, we should hope that as a species we can act as a collective and fight for our own survival. When animals die, we die, too. Animals are needed for our own psychological well-being, and we can learn a lot from them. We are that connected to other beings, and that's why we seek them out when times are tough. Conservation psychology and humane education will surely help figure out the best ways to move forward and to give animals the respect, compassion, and love that they deserve.
[ORIGINALLY POSTED ON AUGUST 12, 2009]
CHAPTER 4Pets Are Good for Us: Where Science and Common Sense Meet
People around the world often remark how being around their pets (now usually referred to as companion animals) makes them feel good. Much recent research supports this. Here are a few tidbits from a July 2010 USA Weekend article, "Why Pets Are Good for Us," about what we know about the positive effect that companion animals such as dogs, cats, and fish have on us. For more, Marty Becker's The Healing Power of Pets and Allen Schoen's Kindred Spirits summarize much research that has laid the groundwork for current work on the nature of the human-animal bond, and Michelle Rivera writes about animals in hospice situations and how they can ease human suffering in her recent book On Dogs and Dying.
To quote the USA Weekend article: "Watch a Lassie movie and spit into a cup. It doesn't sound like it, but this is cutting-edge research. By analyzing saliva, researcher Cheryl Krause-Parello can tell that merely watching a dog in a movie lowers people's stress. In recent years, research has demonstrated the healthful benefits of pets. Now, investigators are trying to figure out why pets are good for us. Krause-Parello, assistant professor and director of the Center for Nursing Research at Kean University in Union, NJ, learned that people feel better after watching a Lassie flick because their levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, take a free fall."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed by Marc Bekoff. Copyright © 2013 Marc Bekoff. Excerpted by permission of New World Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface: Sharing and Celebrating the Fascinating Lives of Other Animals xiii
Part 1 Animals and Us: Reflections on Our Challenging, Frustrating, Confusing, and Deep Interrelationships with Other Animals 1
What in the World Do My Essays Have to Do with Psychology? 3
Animals in Our Brain: Mickey Mouse, Teddy Bears, and "Cuteness" 7
Conservation Psychology and Animal and Human Well-Being: Scientists Must Pay Attention to the Social Sciences 9
Pets Are Good for Us: Where Science and Common Sense Meet 12
Children and Animals: Teach the Children Well 14
Nature-Deficit Disorder Redux: Kids Need to Get Off Their Butts 17
Animals and Inmates: Science Behind Bars 19
Animal Cruelty and Antisocial Behavior: A Very Strong Link 21
Dehumanization and Animal-Human Similarity 23
Animals Can Be Ambassadors for Forgiveness, Generosity, Peace, Trust, and Hope 25
Letting a Friend Go: We Usually Know When It's Time to Say Good-bye 30
Part 2 Against Speciesism: Why All Individuals Are Unique and Special 33
Individual Animals Count: Speciesism Doesn't Work 35
Animal Emotions, Animal Sentience, Animal Welfare, and Animal Rights 38
Animal Minds and the Foible of Human Exceptionalism 42
Animals Don't Laugh, Think, Get Depressed, or Love, Declares a Psychiatrist 45
What Makes Us Uniquely Human? 49
Part 3 Media and the (Mis)representation of Animals 53
Animals in Media: Righting the Wrongs 55
Are Great Apes "Ultraviolent"? 58
Chimpanzees and Meerkats: The Importance of Accurate Media 60
The National Museum of Animals & Society 62
Animals in Art: Nonhumans Benefit from Responsible Representation 65
Part 4 Why Dogs Hump: Or, What We Can Learn from Our Special Friends 69
Dog Trust: Some Lessons from Our Companions 71
My Dog always Eats First: Homeless People and Their Animals 74
Chancer and Iyal: A Dog, His Boy, and His Dog 76
Going to the Dogs Is a Good Idea: It's Not a Dog-Eat-Dog World 79
Wild Dogs in Captivity Are Still Wild Dogs 83
Can Dogs Experience Guilt, Pride, and Shame: Why Not? 86
Hidden Tales of Yellow Snow: What a Dog's Nose Knows - Making Sense of Scents 88
I'll Have What She's Having: Dogs Do It, Too 90
Dogs Know What Others Know: Some New and Exciting Findings about Our Best Friends 91
Stealth Dogs Steal Food in the Dark and Snatch It Quietly 93
Dogs: Looking at the Way We Look at Our Best Friends 95
Why Dogs Hump 97
Social Dominance Is Not a Myth: Wolves, Dogs, and Other Animals 101
Did Cesar Millan Have to Hang the Husky? 104
Part 5 Consciousness, Sentience, and Cognition: A Potpourri of Current Research on Flies, Fish, and Other Animals 107
Animal Consciousness and Science Matter 111
Scientists Finally Conclude Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings 116
Do Animals Know Who They Are? 119
Do Dogs Really Feel Pain and Are They Really Conscious? 122
Age Before Beauty: Older Elephant Matriarchs Know What's Best 126
What Do We Learn from a Tool-Making Genius Bonobo and Copy-Cat Orcas? 127
Spider Builds Complex Lifelike Replica Decoys Outside Web 131
Flies on Booze and Apes on Apps 133
Bold Fish and Brilliant Lizards 135
Tool Use by a Dingo and a Dog 137
Chimpanzees in the Crossfire: Are They Cleverer Than Us? 139
Apes Say "No" with a Head Shake, Animals Are Lefties and Righties, and Getting Out in Nature Is Good. Duh! 141
Do Animals Have Spiritual Experiences? Yes, They Do 143
Part 6 The Emotional Lives of Animals: The Ever-Expanding Circle of Sentience Includes Depressed Bees and Empathic Chickens 147
Emotional Honeybees and Brainy Jellyfish 149
The Birds and the Bees and Their Brains: Size Doesn't Matter 151
Crabs and Fish Feel Pain: Expanding the Circle-of-Sentience Club 156
The Emotional Lives of Reptiles: Stress and Welfare 158
Gorilla Joy and Chimpanzee Grief Without a Doubt 160
Gorillas Dismantle Poacher's Traps: Compassionate Conservation of the Gorilla-Kind 162
Do Wild Animals Suffer from PTSD and Other Psychological Disorders? 164
Did a Female Burro Commit Suicide? 168
Grieving Animals: Saying Good-bye to Friends and Family 170
A Fox, a Cougar, and a Funeral 174
Humpback Whales Protect a Gray Whale from Killer Whales 176
Empathic Chickens and Cooperative Elephants: Emotional Intelligence Expands Its Range Again 178
Empathic Rats and Ravishing Ravens So Bonobos: Going Out of Their Way to Help Others 183
Do "Smarter" Dogs Really Suffer More Than "Dumber" Mice? 186
Part 7 Wild Justice and Moral Intelligence: Don't Blame Other Animals for Our Destructive Ways 193
Wild Justice and Moral Intelligence in Animals 195
"What Were Wars?" Don't Blame Other Animals for Human Violence 199
Human-Like Violence Is Extremely Rare in Other Animals 201
The Moral Lives of Animals: What Did Herman Melville Have to Say about Animals? 203
Give Peace a Chance: We Do Not Have to Go to War 207
Part 8 The Lives of Captive Creatures: Why Are They Even There? 211
Zoos and Aquariums Do Not Accomplish What They Claim They Do 213
"Faux" Animals in Cages Deserve Much Better 215
"Zoothanasia" Is Not Euthanasia: Words Matter 218
Elephants in LA Zoo Aren't Happy or Content, Says Judge 221
Deaths at Sea World: Animals Are Dying to Entertain in This SeaJail 223
Tilly's Willy: In the Name of Science? 225
Rewilding Animals: Going Home at Last 227
Rewilding Dolphins: Good News for Tom and Misha 229
Whipping Horses Doesn't Work 230
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Shows That Real Primates No Longer Need to Be Used in Movies 232
Buddy the Chimpanzee Killed in Nevada Because He Wasn't Really a Pet 233
Part 9 Who We Eat Is a Moral Question 237
Animals' Lives Matter: Sentience and Feelings Count 239
Who We Eat Is a Moral Question: Vegans Have Nothing to Defend 242
Dead Cow Walking 245
My Beef With Temple Grandin: Seemingly Humane Isn't Enough 248
Going "Cold Tofu" to End Factory Farming 252
Brain Scans Show Vegetarians and Vegans Are More Empathic Than Omnivores 255
Killing Other Animals for Food Does Not Make Us Human 256
Babe, Lettuce, and Tomato: Dead Pig Walking 258
Is Eating Dogs Different from Eating Cows and Pigs? 262
Vegans and Oysters: If You Eat Oysters, You're Not a Vegan, So Why the Question? 163
Part 10 Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why: Redecorating Nature, Peaceful Coexistence, and Compassionate Conservation 265
Close Encounters of a Lion Kind: Meeting Cougars, Foxes, Bears… and Bear Poop 267
Being "Mad about Wildlife" and Redecorating Nature 271
Animals and Cars: One Million Animals Are Killed on Our Roads Every Day 275
Should We Kill Animals Who Presumably Attack Humans? 280
Murder, Inc.: Wildlife Services Brutally Kills Millions of Animals with Your Money 283
Recreational Hunting: Would You Kill Your Dog for Fun? 286
Are Fluffy Pandas Worth Saving or Should We Let Them Go? 289
Using Hamsters to Save Ferrets: The Need for Compassionate Conservation 292
Bill and Lou: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why 298
Saving Sentience: Homeless Animals Need All the Help They Can Get 301
Ignoring Nature No More: Compassionate Conservation at Work 303
Part 11 Rewilding Our Hearts: The Importance of Kindness, Empathy, and Compassion for All Beings 307
Twelve Millennial Mantras (with Jane Goodall): Hope Abounds 309
Compassion Begets Compassion 314
Old Brains, New Bottlenecks, and Animals: Solastalgia and Our Relationship with Other Beings 317
Animal Losses Are Rampant, but Conservation Efforts Work 320
Rewilding Our Hearts: Maintaining Hope and Faith in Trying Times 322
Endnotes 329
Bibliography 357
Index 363
About the Author 381