They laugh. That's the conclusion of Dr. Jaak Panksepp, veterinary scentist at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.
In a writeup in the Huffington Post, Panksepp is quoted, "Subcortical brain regions are evolutionarily related in all mammals, and since rat laughter is strictly a lower brain process (as in humans), that indicates that we share share a form of social-joy with other animals."
Rat "laughter" consists of high-frequency chirps that are beyond the range of human hearing. Dr. Panksepp produced a video of him tickling a pair of rats. He used special sound equipment to hear the rats' responses.
Here is the link to Dr. Panksepp's video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M_oKQ9Dzitc
Animals can laugh. It's well documented with chimps and other apes. After Dr. Panksepp tickled his rats for awhile, they chased his hand around, looking for more. It seems clear. They also can laugh and experience joy.
When we know that other animal species have feelings. When we know they can suffer and feel pain, and they can also laugh and have fun, and experience joy. When we know this, it's impossible to find any moral ground that allows us to abuse them; to treat them as prey, to grow them and process them like they are unfeeling commodities, Yet, we do just that.
How can anyone harm any creature capable of laughter?
No comments:
Post a Comment