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via YOUR NEW REALITY by Darryl Mason on 12/18/08 Do Dogs Keep Mental Shit Lists? In yet another 'Did you have to actually do a study to know this?' study, researchers now believe that dogs can experience jealously, and even resentment : Do dogs feel envy? A provocative new study indicates that they do, making man's best friend the first species after humans and primates to appear to chafe at being treated unfairly. Aside from offering the first scientific evidence supporting what many dog lovers take for granted, the finding adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that animals, including dogs, have much richer emotional lives and more sophisticated behavior than humans have traditionally believed. "Traditionally?" I think they mean "religiously." Before the new study, the only creatures other than humans for which there was evidence of anything similar to envy were monkeys and chimpanzees. When asked to return rocks to their keepers in exchange for a treat, for example, monkeys that got cucumbers essentially went on strike and started throwing the rocks and cucumbers at researchers if they saw other animals getting grapes instead. Damn straight. They're lucky they didn't get handfuls of shit thrown at them. "Every dog owner will tell you, 'Yes, of course my dog has this.' You see it a lot if you have two dogs. If you treat one differently, then the other one would get angry," she said. But demonstrating it in a careful study helps dispel lingering notions that dogs and other animals are capable of only the most basic emotions, she said. "It's definitely very interesting, because it shows that dogs don't just have primitive feelings like 'I'm afraid' or 'I'm happy.' This is a more higher level, deeper and profound," she said. What is a dog really thinking about its owner if it gets a smack? I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry? Or is the dog's reaction more like, 'Oh yeah, I'm gonna get you buddy. Yeah, I'll wag my tail soon and slobber all over you, but I won't forget this. No way. Just when you need them the most, those good shoes in the cupboard are going to get a little deposit from me. Oh yeah, Mr Slappy Hands, just you wait.' "As time goes on, we're collecting an astounding amount of information about the social skills that animals have for negotiating their social world," said Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado, author of the forthcoming book "Wild Justice," about animal morality. Bekoff noted, for example, that mice have shown signs of empathy for other mice in danger, that elephants will go out of their way to care for other injured elephants, and that coyotes will ostracize other coyotes who play unfairly. "From an evolutionary point of view, there's very little that we have that other animals don't have. Do I think that dogs can be envious and show resentment and jealousy? Of course I think they can," Bekoff said. The sense of envy probably evolved to help the animals cooperate and probably exists in other animals for which cooperation is important, such as wolves and perhaps dolphins, Range said. Understanding how animals cooperate provides insights into how cooperation evolved, she and others said. Animals can feel and experience and presumably remember the sting of jealously, perhaps even get caught up in chilling thrill of envy. But can they plot revenge? The whole story makes for a fascinating Sunday afternoon read. It may also make you wonder about those occasional stories where animals kill children, like the one where a family cat suffocated a baby. What if the cat was insanely jealous at the new arrival getting all the attention, and knew exactly what it was doing? The moral politics of dogs will be confusing enough, but are we ready to comprehend the mostly remorseless, unemphatic moral politics of cats? http://yournewreality.blogspot.com/2008/12/do-dogs-keep-mental-shit-lists-in-yet.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
