09/12/2008
Mammals & Birds cry like human beings
Maneka Gandhi
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Are humans the only ones who cry ? Ask anyone who has seen a street dog lose even one of her puppies to a passing car or to the beating of a passerby. The night is filled with her howls as she mourns her baby. My dog Milli had a child. He was killed by another dog . She cried for a week and looked for him everywhere. When a baby chimpanzee dies, the mother will carry the body around for several days . The gorilla Koko , while in captivity, made friends with a cat and when he died , she wept and mourned. Have you heard the lonely bird cry that has been left behind inadvertently by the rest of the flight flock ? Have you seen the tears of the cow as she runs desperately behind the cart that is carrying her calf away to slaughter ? I have and it is like a permanent open wound inside my heart. When I stop a truck from taking buffaloes illegally to slaughter and fifty jumbled creatures stumble out from a space meant for eight , I see their faces wet with the tears of fear and pain. It is not just human babies that cry when their mothers don’t feed them. Monkey babies cry out to their mothers when they are hungry and when they are being weaned away from being breast fed , they tend to cry more and more. Initially their mothers respond to the distress calls. But as they respond less and less . the infants gradually stop crying and brave themselves to find their own food. Just as children cry when they are frightened or hurt, chimpanzees cry for a long time if something terrible is happening to them, but when they are picked up , they stop. Since all animals and birds share the feelings of love, care, motherhood, pain, territorial possessiveness and intelligence, it is natural that they will also feel the emotions of depression, loss , fear and all the nuances in between. All animals can shed tears. Tears are an important protection and lubricant for the eye. They flush out irritants and keep the eye wet to enhance vision. But scientists like to presume that only humans cry “ emotional” tears while all the rest are caused by irritation of the eyes. This inspite of the fact that all experiments have shown that loss or death shows weeping in chimpanzees, dogs, elephants and bears – so far. In fact those who work in the field of studying animal behaviour are advised by the standard reference work, The Oxford Companion to Animal Behavior, advises animal behaviorists that "One is well advised to study the behaviour, rather than attempting to get at any underlying emotion".Because of the philosophical questions of consciousness and mind involved, many scientists have stayed away from examining animal emotion, and have studied instead, measurable brain functions, through neuroscience. Studies have found that young mammals and birds cry with distress when they are separated from their mothers. Wildlife experts and hunters both note that the cry of a bear cub separated from its mother sounds very much like a human baby's cry. The Dugong , the sea cow that lives in the Indian Ocean and is now under the threat of extinction by the dredging of the unnecessary and thoroughly corrupt Sethusamudran project , cries copiously when in trouble or pain. When a baby rat cries because he is cold or fallen out of his nest, often his mother brings the fallen pup back into the nest. When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy is a book that should be read by everyone who has seen an elephant being beaten on its head by its mahout ( last week , the Kairali news channel showed an undercover film on the killing of elephants in Kerala for insurance money by a gang headed by a retired forest officer and his son. They buy sick elephants on the pretext of treating them and kill them by beating in its head with bats , take out the tusks and nails and then get the insurance money.) or being separated from its herd. When an elephant dies, all the group surrounds it and weeps. When a baby is hurt, the mother will not leave it – even if it means sitting on a railway track. Baby elephants in particular produce a very sad, keening sound. Charles Darwin said that the keeper of the Indian elephants at the London Zoo told him the elephants would weep sorrowfully . Dogs can experience chronic depression through their feelings of helplessness at being repeatedly hurt.If you walk into most puppy mills, and even shelters and veterinary clinics, you'll probably hear at least one dog "crying". Not with tears, but pitiful whimpering that is as close to human crying as anything could be. My blind and deaf Great Dane, Gudiya, wants to play with people all the time. If we leave her suddenly , she will hunt for us for a little while and then make the most awful choked sobs at being left alone again. Do animals cry ? Of course they do. You simply have to look into their eyes to know. Marc Bekoff has studied animal emotions for thirty years and apart from the behavioral and neurobiological studies , he says that common sense supports the obvious conclusion is that mammals, birds and fish experience rich and deep emotional lives, feeling passions from pure and contagious joy during play, to deep grief and pain. “Scientific research shows that spindle cells, which were long thought to exist only in humans and other great apes, have been discovered in humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales and sperm whales in the same area of their brains as spindle cells in human brains. This brain region is linked with social organization, empathy and intuition about the feelings of others, as well as rapid gut reactions. Spindle cells are important in processing emotions. It’s likely that if we seek the presence of spindle cells in other animals we will find them. “ Neuro scientific research has also shown that elephants have a huge hippocampus, a brain structure in the limbic system that’s important in processing emotions. All mammals (including humans) share neuro anatomical structures (for example, the amygdala and hippocampus) and neuro chemical pathways in the limbic system that are tied to feelings. Can you ignore the pain of an animal that cries like you ? Can you cut open a crying mouse, dog or chimpanzee in a laboratory and justify it in the name of some research which you know is meaningless ? Can you beat and eat and overuse a frightened helpless being just like you ? What hurts you , hurts all animals equally. If you understand this , you will activate that part of your brain that supplies compassion – and it is the same part that supplies intelligence. There is so much evidence that those scientists that refuse to believe that animals cry just like us , show how badly we have misinterpreted everything about this planet.
To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in
A very nice and beautiful article by Ms Maneka Gandhi. This is a must read and if possible these type of topics should be included as part of school syllabus for our younger children to understand these and inculcate the values while they are growing. Someone or a group of people should come forward to lobby with the state government to include these types of valuable topics to our state curriculum. Thanks to Ms Maneka Gandhi and also to Bihar Times for providing such space to such a valuable articles.
I also happen to read “How harmful is the Packaged Meat”, which was very informative.
“Can you ignore the pain of an animal that cries like you? Can you cut open a crying mouse, dog or chimpanzee in a laboratory and justify it in the name of some research which you know is meaningless? Can you beat and eat and overuse a frightened helpless being just like you? What hurts you, hurts all animals equally. If you understand this, you will activate that part of your brain that supplies compassion – and it is the same part that supplies intelligence. There is so much evidence that those scientists that refuse to believe that animals cry just like us, show how badly we have misinterpreted everything about this planet”.
Gopal Keshri
Melbourne Gopal.Keshri@team.telstra.com
previous articles... Biomemetics Provides solution to human problems Chinese food products- the greatest killer Pets make better partners than humans How harmful is the Packaged Meat Stop Slaughter of Cows for Bone Trade How cruel it is to dump pet animals ? view comments... Don’t hurt animals on festive occasions Glues are made of animal remains Birds provide springboard to song composers Is it not an act of Cannibalism? How many animals do you have to eat before you become man ? Is It Healthy Decision to Promote Rat Eating in Bihar Use of Animal bones in Porcelain Infection of Tick disease in Dogs and its cure Vegetarian diet is the best diet for human beings Excuses for being non-vegetarians MEAT threatens Planet’s Survival Am I smarter than you ? Yes, if you are a meat eater. Need to orient educational system to deal with animals How to Avoid Cruelty to Gold Fish? How To Make Everyday An Animal day Use of Animal Fats in Cosmetics Industries Killing of endangered Species for Perfume Industries Missionary Campaign to Control Cruelty to Animals- needed The Business of Murder:Factory Farming and the Meat Industry in India Effect of landscaping of birds on environment Dangers of killing deep Sea-Sharks for Cosmetic Products Use of dog in diagnosis of diseases Self-Regulation of Population by Animals Arsenic poison in chicken feed Cruelty to Animals by Govt. Vets Worship of God with Blood and Suffering of Animals and Birds Consequences of Chloramphenicol in Shrimp Industry Hazards of Trade in Peacocks’ Feather Supreme Court Ban on cruelty to Animals The Goat That Laughed and Wept Animal Owners’ personality traits resemble their Pets’ Animal sacrifice at the altar of religion |
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