#mark bekoff

[booksiverecentlyread]

79: The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons from the Sawtooth Pack [2018]

by: Jim & Jamie Dutcher

[noncompliantartist]

Marc Bekoff (a biologist) disucsses animas' capacity for empathy and caring

In the book "Animals Matter" - the book has some problematic aspects (the frequency to use "slave" when discussing animal mistreatment in industry), but there was a story that struck me.

[pg. 28-29] Bekoff discusses an elephant heard who has a female elephant named Babyl who is crippled [unspecified, but assumed a spine, or back/front leg variation, maybe even an injury], and couldn't walk quite as fast. So the heard, even the matriarch, assumed a slower pace, or if they got too far ahead, would frequently stop and wait for her. The matriarch would sometimes feed her herself, as well.

This sort of behavior is experienced many species, and even some cross-species action. These things are common occurrences. I think the defamation of the sort of phrase "survival of the fittest" from Darwin has became prevalent. The phrase actually meant that those that fit the environment, or adapted to the environment that changed, were the fittest. This, taken from many would-be (and already) eugenicists and lay people that it coincides with the phrase "dog eat dog" - when that is furthest from the truth possible. Dog eat dog implies that the only way to be the best is the eat the other dog; that somehow means you are the strongest and bestest dog ever. But that's not that case. The dog in question did not adapt to its surroundings, did not continue forward as a species, etc. The two phrases are often lumped together, and used in arguments in conjunction with each other.

We assume animals just act to survive, and we ignore the fact they have lives.

[choosehopefortheanimals]

When animals express their feelings they pour out like water from a spout. Animals' emotions are raw, unfiltered, and uncontrolled. Their joy is the purest and most contagious of joys and their grief the deepest and most devastating. Their passions bring us to our knees in delight and sorrow. ~Marc Bekoff (The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter)

[rapax-anamalia]

When animals express their feelings they pour out like water from a spout. Animals' emotions are raw, unfiltered, and uncontrolled. Their joy is the purest and most contagious of joys and their grief the deepest and most devastating. Their passions bring us to our knees in delight and sorrow.

Mark Bekoff

The Emotional Lives of Animals

[rapax-anamalia]

Even if animal emotions aren't exactly the same as our own, or for that matter the same across species, this doesn't mean that animals don't feel.

Mark Bekoff

The Emotional Lives of Animals

[rapax-anamalia]

To live with a dog is to know firsthand that animals have feelings.

Mark Bekoff

The Emotional Lives of Animals

[animalsandtrees]

"What can we learn about human violence from nonhuman animals?" 

[fuckyeahveganlife]

mark bekoff, chapter one/reason one of 'the animal manifesto:six reasons for expanding our commission footprint' (apparently, it's mark bekoff week)