A Response to Mr. Ishmael

Further commenting on Raj's post about habituation and auto pioleting, I decided to throw another example into the mix, relating to tigers because they are cute. I think this example is more biological then making a habit of things, but it's cool! In Tailand, a tiger that was raised by a pig raises pigs. This is quite interesting, as the video describes since, yes they are "mortal enemies"  but I think it harkens back to what we discussed on Monday in class about how you can develop habits by trying things over and over. In this case, it seems the sow accepted the tiger cub's mewing and body language, offering them food, the cubs suckled and realized that this thing gives food if I'm nice and gentile to it. Since they had no "training" from a parent, they did not learn to hunt, they learned to feed off of the sow's milk (the zoo probably fed them individually some meat as they grew older) I find these stories fascinating. 

I also think that this is how we developed our relationship with dogs or with any pets. I mean, I have a German shepherd who barks and scares little kids who have never met her, but if they try enough, they get used to her... She looks like a coyote and if I see a coyote I get intimidated and reach for my knife or any weapon nearby, but I don't do this to my dog. I believe it is due to me placing extrinsic value on my dog above that of some "wild animal" even if they look similar and are "the same." Now, relating this back to ethics and rights, I feel that any animal can be conscious of it's environment, much like any human can have a memory of where to walk and where not to walk through experiance. To get into neurobiology a bit, it is (as of now, only a theory) the spines on our dendrites within not only the telencephelon (forebrain or "cortex"... the big part of our brain) but the whole body that gives "us" (all animals) our muscle memory and in a few animals (yes.... particularly mammals... especially those above 1 year of age...)  the telencephelon is more developed (or actually develops) giving the animal a sense of "mental memory" and I guess you could say "consciousness." so it's not ethics we are discussing, it's biochemistry!!