A Response to Mr. Gaudet

In response to the question Humans and animals. Humans or animals. Humans vs. animals. Are these legitimate separations? There is an interesting battle with words when it comes to distinctions, especially between "humans" and animals, since, as Mr. Gaudet put it, "Humans are animals; so, from where does this fictional distinction come?" I feel this is a very difficult question to answer, especially because I am not as well acquainted with semantics and linguistic history as some people may be. In my best way of understanding this question, I feel it comes down to the human's (and I believe animals share a similar a similar state of mind as well) fear of being attacked by the unknown.

To define this "Unknown", we will call it some unknown other animal. For instance, I have a fear of dogs I am not personally familiar with, as I do not know how they will react to me being around them or trying to pet them. They could be happy with me petting them, or seeing a hand move, they could think I am going to hit them, thus bark and bite. The animal (be it human or otherwise) does not know how the other animal will react to it and thus it will likely try to avoid it if possible, distancing itself from a possibly hostile encounter. Us as Homo sapiens with our language systems, we like to classify things, and classify we do. Since the "wilds" are lands with other animals that haven't been domesticated, killed by us, or possibly discovered by us, we tend to avoid that area of uncertain encounters. Any being that we do not know, without reasonable doubt, how it will react to us, is considered unknown, and thus, wild.

"wild humans" are "humans" who act in ways that are unpredictable, or against the "norm" and thus are regarded with fear for their unpredictability. Much like animals that act in ways we can't predict are termed "wild" animals due to the nature of the "wilds" for which we assume they hail from. I believe this is where the term "wild animals" comes from. We refer to Dogs as "pets" as an overarching umbrella meaning companion animals such as fish, cats, dogs, gerbils, etc. While pigs, cows, and sheep are considered "livestock", minnows and worms and other small creatures are termed "bait".

In colloquia  I believe that anything that is not within our species is termed an "animal" as an overarching umbrella term for "non-Homo sapien beings in the Kingdom Animale".  Humans is a term we made for ourselves I believe to delineate these non-"human" animals from us. This could possibly date back to the time before Darwin's putting together of the concept of evolution, whereby we as Humans were created separately from the other creatures of the earth, and perhaps that term has stuck with us like slang and swears have. We may not want to use them because they don't make sense, but they are there through time so we have to deal with it wether we use them or not.

Dealing with the initial question of using the terms humans and animals as legitimate separations, I believe if we take "humans" to be slang for Homo sapiens, and we take "Animals" to mean "non-Homo sapien species" then I believe we can use those words... however it would be easier to understand if we just said "Homo sapiens vs. non-Homo sapien animals."

An Animal, or a  "Human"?

Travel catches up!

I asked the question "Just because science allows us to perform an experiment or advancement in technology, are we obligated to follow and attempt that endeavor?"

Mainly with regards to animals being used for research, but this question can be applied to many other scientific advances as well, such as the Atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima which, after taking Nuclear Age, knowing about my family history and seeing the wreckage and exhibits first hand at the peace memorial in Hiroshima, I felt conflicted in what I knew about science, but that is a discussion for another blog and/or time.

In regards to animal research, I believe Singer brought up testing performed on rabbits to see if new shampoos would harm them. I believe this form of scientific research regarding animals falls under my question. I can understand that companies need to continually churn out new products or they will loose money, but I don't believe it is ethical, defensible, or even necessary to test new products on animals. From an chemistry perspective, if we know the compounds used within the shampoo and the approximate concentration, comparing that with known concentrations/ compounds, we should have our answer without harming more rabbits. Just be cause we can test new products on animals doesn't mean we should in that case.

Another experiment brought up by Singer and a few books I have read relates to deprivation of maternal care for animals. This relates to epigenetics, a new field that is still misunderstood, and I feel needs more looking into, not only for the sake of humans, but possibly for "rehabilitation" of test/ food product animals. If we understand how the environment can affect not only that particular animal, but methylation passed through genes, we can understand how to limit the harm to future generations through the environment. It's not like a chicken with a cut off beak will have offspring with cut off beaks, it's more like a piglet who was taken from the sow before age 1 would lack the constant tactile stimulation of her mother and therefore be less socially compatible  forgoing food, interaction, mating, and being agressive and stressed more easily.

I believe these epigenetic studies are necessary at this point, since we can perform basic behavioral experiments  I feel these should be done for the betterment of not only our species, but other species that, at this point, we use but may in the distant future, release back to the wild.

There are two extremes I have just listed, One where it is absolutely not necessary except to visually express the pain that can be seen by animals (or not seen if they are blinded.... bad joke), and one where it can be beneficial in the long run not only to humans but to the animals we interact with.

An artist's concept of epigentic modification that I quite like

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome