Prominent Scientists Sign Declaration that Animals have Conscious Awareness

reply to post by My_Reality

Only a fool would believe otherwise. However, to expand upon this belief to the point where lawn grass or a cockroach has an identical awareness to a human is ludicrous.

I guess it depends on what level you are looking at things..

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

Most people can't visit a slaughter house and continue to eat meat.

Very true and most will not even watch a film of the suffering from feedlot yard, painful panicked truck trip to the horror of what they go through in the slaughter. The misery on their usually very content faces in the horrible feedlot pens is enough.
If you visit a large cattle field the cows will often come running to you, thinking we are friends who feed them.

When i was 7 we went to my aunts farm and one day they were (I think it was called gilding) the male cattle.

There was a very large bull in the cattle shut, my Aunt came running out all smiles with a huge bowl, they cut the bulls balls off while he screamed and cried his eyes popping out, he screamed hours after, they dropped into the bowl. My Aunt ran to the house where the frying pan, a HUGE pan was already hot and without any other preparation she dumped the bleeding mass in.

Humans :-(

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
I eat meat because it's damn good. I can see how if the animals we eat are conscious that it becomes a touchy issue, but I still think it's the natural cycle of things for animals to eat other animals, regardless of if they are conscious or not. Although I do think the way we cage up and mass produce animals for eating is quite immoral if those animals are conscious. We should at least be providing them with open land and space to live in the time that they are alive.

But this really does not shock me at all... most people who have owned a cat or dog will tell you without a doubt that those animals are capable of feeling emotions and demonstrate many other forms of higher level behavior. My cat can most certainly feel emotions such as fear, loneliness, playfulness, anger, jealousy, and an array of other emotions. It can recognize it's own image in a mirror and can communicate many different thoughts to me through it's cat language.

Most of the time my cat is a friendly and affectionate animal, but it still goes out and hunts other animals, it tears things apart limb by limb like some sort of bloodthirsty psychopath. Some times it brings parts of the dead thing to me acting like it's done something good. I get angry of course but I can't really do much because it's in the cats nature to kill things and eat them. Just as it is in the nature of humans to eat meat, there's nothing inherently wrong with it.

Out of all the reasons to eat something I feel that "it tastes great" is to me the worst. Maybe human tastes great, how about babies? The asians have taken to eating living frogs, maybe they taste really great. They also wat living chicks as they are ready to leave the egg, they warm to the painful stage but don't kill and eat it raw.

Look at the yummy stuff here they say it all tastes great, is that how we decide things in life? By our taste buds?
myperuvianadventures.wordpress.com...

Maybe we should prepare and improve on our own, that would show some sense of strength and wisdom.

English Standard Version (©2001)

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

(they will all eat veggies)

Originally posted by ThirdEyeofHorus


National Geographic can sure put things in perspective

reply to post by My_Reality

I do not hear an explanation as to why animals choose to make lunch or dinner out of humans. If i do hear such an explanation it is so insulting to an animal that I want to puke.

Animals rarely choose to eat humans, they may kill because they are protecting young or they have been shot or are weak and maimed,or mistake us for some other creature but they don't hunt us for food...look it up.

reply to post by My_Reality

making a meal out of a human due to necessity.

I like that word.Makes one think. Your ancestors never had huge corporations place ground up who knows what in a store for you. They never tortured the creatures they ate.

reply to post by starfoxxx


You really are dim.

And on ignore on my desktop browser, pity I cant get greasemonkey to work on the tablet...

Originally posted by fluff007
reply to post by purplemer

 

This is good news. However it is only a small step. Still a very good step..! It would be nice if countries the world over would sign this declaration. For most people who encounter animals or have had pets it is obvious that these wondrous beings are conscious and aware...

They have dreams like us too. They feel and hurt. They experience emotions. They are not so different from us... And the way we treat many of these animals worldwide is just not right...

s/f OP... Thanks purp nice find

They also value their freedom, that should be obvious. The bird in cages that cannot select a mate and choose the place for their nest and never travel free. The caged large cat pacing in a cage the horses people love their heads hang low and they are still controlled by the pain of the bit...now have you watched wild horses? I have, what a different animal.
No different then we would become if aliens placed us in their zoo and fed us what they liked and threw in a mate they selected and sold our child when it was born. They may love us and love watching us but we would be sad shadows of ourselves.

I knew this when I was a kid...lol


science is slow

reply to post by Char-Lee


What other reason would you prefer, or rather, expect?

People eat meat because they enjoy the taste. Why do we enjoy the taste? Probably because evolutionary forces have conditioned gustatory-olfactory neurons in our brains to enjoy it's flavor.

So this is how I see it. Biologically, we eat meat because evolution (nature) has designed us as omnivores. People COULD use that as an explanation - in a causal sense, but I think the much simpler and direct explanation: I like the way it tastes - get's to the root of it. People eat meat because they enjoy it's flavor, texture and effect.

Originally posted by setibuddies

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by butcherguy

 

It is entirely possible that I am the only conscious being in existence and that everything else is just a construct in that consciousness.

Good thing you're not in charge.

To the thread. Life is sentient? OMG... who would've thunk it?

Butcherguy is 100 percent correct: we can't PROVE that another human being is conscious and self-aware. The upshot of this is how much more impossible is it to either prove or disprove a specific animal is self-aware?

IMHO, higher order problem solving animals are definitely self-aware.

The key to proving this is to first of all understand that you are the proof of everything even yourself. You know you know you exist and are aware. You are aware of manifestation/consciousness. But consciousness is transitory and awareness is eternal. That awareness is all pervading and the same awareness that is in you the observer of the thinking mind is who you are. Therefore you are total awareness and total consciousness. So you are everything and nothing at the same time. You just have to stand on the conviction that YOU ARE GOD. God is the awareness which you KNOW YOU ARE. Do I have to prove to you that you know you know you exist?

I know that on the face of it, it seems like a good thing... sure, it may appear that science is admitting that animals have self awareness, which validates anti-cruelty campaigns. Cruelty to animals is a horrible thing. I think we can all accept that. But here is where science and governments can twist things.
We spay and neuter or pets. Control the pet population. Bob Barker said it after every show. It's a very accepted practice.
By declaring that animals have conscious awareness, science and government now have a valid argument for human spaying and neutering. We do it to conscious animals all of the time, but now they can lump the two together. Animal-conscious being = human-conscious being. Hasn't science gone to great lengths to label humans as nothing more than conscious animals?

reply to post by Thiaoouba Prophecy

Do I have to prove to you that you know you know you exist?

Nope.

Problem today is, peoples sentience or awareness of the moment is replaced with the need to be distracted or entertained. Instead of practicing being aware of the now and in the moment we want to be torn away from our conscious thinking self. And the world has made us what we are in this regard. We have sports, religion, drugs and alcohol, food, business, play, anything you do to take you away from the now is what we practice all the waking day.

The end product we are become is a mindless, heartless, cretin. Just give us what we want and to hell with everyone and everything. We are so short attention-ed and impatient that if we had to sit in a room in a chair with only our thoughts for more than a minute, we would surely be driven mad.

You want to improve your lot? Go sit in that room. Do it for 15 minutes at a time, several times a day. It will take about a season. Even though you think you will, you won't go mad. You'll find yourself.

reply to post by starfoxxx

Sounds like those scientists might be animal rights weirdos. I am going to eat meat and I do not care if those mentaly ill animal rights freaks get offended. It is part of my culture and food is pretty much central of someone's culture. I do believe animals are aware what they are, but not connected to some conscious that every one connected to sounds pretty far off and new agey. My pet ducks does have nightmares. He got up jumping, running and screaming last night.

I think this video fits the subject and is entertaining to watch.

reply to post by Jauk3

Those Mimic Octopi are astounding. They mimic shapes and colors of other animals around it. How does it do that without a mirror to practice in front of?

Thats some aware extrapolation...

Hah, now it's official. Will that make some people stop torturing animals or purposefully running over them? Probably not for a long time.

They probably have much more effectual and gallant lives than any of us ever will, ignance is blizz rite?

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by Jauk3

 

Those Mimic Octopi are astounding. They mimic shapes and colors of other animals around it. How does it do that without a mirror to practice in front of?

Natural selection, I'm guessing. All the crap mimic octopi are dead. The ones that didn't need a mirror to get it right lived to pass on their genes.

I eat meat. I eat fruit and veggies too. But that doesn't mean I'm not aware that animals have consciousness. Of course they do.

I grew up around farms. We had a small personal farm when I was older. I've ate the chicken I fed. I robbed the chicken of their eggs for breakfast. I've milked the cow for dairy. I went to the slaughter house to say goodbye to our bull Curly who was being chopped up to fill our freezer. I've helped gut the deer hunted on our property. That's life, and I've been taught that it's natural. I loved our animals, but I didn't feel guilty for eating them. Rather, I looked at it as a circle of life sort of thing, and felt honored that I was able to care for those animals and in return they kept me healthy and full.

I don't know if that's wrong or right - but it was how I was raised.

ETA - I also think plants have consciousness that we don't understand, but that's another topic.

Blessings,
Cirque

reply to post by madmac5150


Uh, what? I don't think this is going to push Eugenics into the political arena, Hitler gave it too bad of a rap for anyone to poke it with a 10-foot-pole. I guess we have him to thank for that.