'how dogs love us' is my latest read - finished it over christmas break. this book is pretty new - heard about it on some website, and pre-ordered it on amazon before it was released. i initially read about it on some website - i can't remember what site i was on, but it was an article about this book and how peta was going to have a 'field day' with it (which now after reading this, i can definitely see why).
the book is written by a man who studies the brain for a living, how they work, emotions, etc. dr. berns wasn't always a dog person - i don't recall he grew up with them. he adopted a dog later in life when he had a family and found himself growing quite attached. he was looking at his dog one day and wondered to himself, 'does my dog actually love me? does she love me as i love her, or does she just see me as a source of food and shelter? does she have human emotions?' now me being a dog person who nurses what *might* be an unhealthy attachment to toby, of course i knew he loves me. no brainer - duh. the author thought the same thing, but he wanted to prove it.
he and his team trained dogs to lay still in an mri machine to study their brains and to see if, in fact, dogs (and animals) have human emotions. long story short, they do. the book is fascinating. our dogs (and other animals) actually do love us - they feel emotions very similarly to what we do. they feel love, happiness, sadness, loneliness, depression, frustration, stress, fear, silliness, attachment, abandonment, etc.
he then begged to ask the question, 'if animals do in fact feel similar emotions and stresses as we do, is it morally okay to eat them?' my point exactly. when i wrote my 'among the vegan path' blog, i touched on this. in china and other countries, people eat dogs. dogs!! as i looked down at toby, it made me sick to my stomach to think that people might find his meat a delicacy. can you imagine eating your dog? absolutely not. i have a couple friends who have pigs as pets, and they seem just as intelligent, loveable, and cuddly as a dog. so why is it okay to slice them up in the bacon and fry them up when the thought of eating your pet dog is not acceptable? i have a new friend who has a baby lamb - why is it more acceptable to slice her up into expensive lamb chops and serve them medium rare? i'm not sure if i can come up with an answer to that. and when i found i couldn't answer that question, that is when i ventured onto the vegan path. again, not trying to push this on anyone, just sharing thoughts.
a little while after i finished this book, i came across an article - again, scientists have proven that animals have feelings as we do and had made a formal declaration and statement. a group of international and highly esteemed scientists have recently signed he cambridge declaration on consciousness, declaring their support for the idea that animals are aware and conscious to the same degree as humans. read it - awesome article.
www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/science-proves-that-animals-have-feelings/
i'm hoping that books, articles, and testaments like these will raise more awareness about animals and how they feel. one day it was acceptable to enslave and consider people as property, even acceptable to hang them. now that thought is morally repugnant. i do hope that one day we will think the same of animals and how once they were treated.
whether you are an animal person or not, these are good reads that will really make you think. and if you're one of the people who thinks they are 'just animals', you may think twice.
No comments:
Post a Comment