When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (37 page)

18 Descartes is quoted in Tom Regan and Peter Singer, eds.. Animal Rights and Human Obligations (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1979), pp. 61-64. The original passage is from Discours de la me'thode, 5 (A. Bridoux, ed., Oeuvres et lettres de Descartes, pp. 165-66. Dijon, France: Gallimard, 1953).

18 "An unknown contemporary . . ." Quoted in Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983), p. 5.

18 "'Answer me . . .'" Fran9ois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, Julien Benda and Raymond Naves, eds. (Paris: Garnier Freres, 1961), pp. 50-51. Translation by Jeffrey Masson.

18 "Elsewhere . . ." Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, "The Beasts," Article 6 in Le philosophe ignorant, Les Oeuvres Completes de Voltaire, Vol. Melanges, Jacques van den Heuvel, ed. (Paris: Gallimard), p. 863. Translation by Jeffrey Masson.

18 "As early as 1738 . . ." The French text is quoted in Hester Hastings, Man and Beast in French Thought of the Eighteenth Centufj, Vol. 27 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1936), p. 183. Translation by Jeffrey Masson. See, too, Thomas H. Huxley, "On the hypothesis that animals are automata, and its history," in Method and Results: Essays (1893; reprint, London: Macmillan, 1901), pp. 199-250. He writes, "I confess that, in view of the struggle for existence which goes on in the animal world, and of the frightful quantity of pain with which it must be accompanied, I should be glad if the probabilities were in favour of Descartes' hypothesis; but, on the other hand, considering the terrible practical consequences to domestic animals which might ensue from any error on our part, it is as well to err on the right side, if we err at all, and deal with them as weaker brethren, who are bound, like the rest of us, to pay their toll for living, and suffer what is needful for the general good. As Hartley finely says, 'We seem to be in the place of God to them.' " (Ibid., p. 237) For a complete history of the Descartes debate, see Leonora Cohen Rosenfield: From Beast-Machine to Man-Machine: Animal Soul in French Letters from Descartes to La Mettrie (1940; new edition. New York: Octagon Books, 1968); the introduction in Francois Dagognet, "L'Animal selon Con-dillac" in Traite' des animaux (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1987); and George Boas, "The Happy Beast" in French Thought of the Seventeenth

240

NOTES

Centwy: Connihutions to the History of Primitivism (Baltimore: The Johns

Hopkins Press, 1933). 19 Irene Pepperberg, interview by Susan McCarthy, February 22, 1993. 21 EHzabeth Marshall Thomas, "Reflections: The Old Way," 77?^ Neiv Yorker

(October 15, 1990), p. 91. 21 De Waal, Peacemakiiig Among Primates, p. 220. 21 David Macdonald, Ru?ining with the Fox (London and Sydney: Unwin Hy-

man, 1987), p. 164.

21 Konrad Lorenz, The Year of the Greylag Goose (New York and London: Har-court Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 56.

22 "Not only is it . . ." Cf. Mary Midgley, Beast a?jd Man: The Roots of Human Nature (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978), p. 345.

Chapter 2: Unfeeling Brutes

25 Oeuvres choisies de Buffon, Vol. 2: "L'Histoire naturelle des animaux" (Paris: Librairie de Firmin Didot Freres, 1861), pp. 484^88, 493-96, 509, 525.

26 N. K. Himiphrey, "The Social Function of Intellect," in Growing Points in Ethology, P. P. G. Bateson and R. A. Hinde, eds., pp. 303-17 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1976).

26 Donald Symons, The Evolution of Human Sexuality (New York: Oxford Uni-

versit)' Press, 1979), pp. 78-79. 26 "When the question . . ." D. Goldfoot et al., "Behavioral and Physiological

Evidence of Sexual Climax in the Female Stump-tailed xMacaque," Science

208 (1980), pp. 1477-79. Cited in de Waal, Peacemaking Among Primates, pp.

151-53.

26 De Waal, Peacemaking Among Pj-imates, pp. 151-53, 198-206.

27 "'Civilization, or perhaps . . .'" This splendid example of benightedness is also quoted by Mary Midgley in her article "The Mixed Community," in Hargrove, ed., The Animal Rights/Etivironmental Ethics Debate, p. 223. The actual article is a very long and learned one wTitten by Northcote W^ Thomas, in Vol. 1 of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908), pp. 483-535. The article actually begins (p. 483) by citing the "great gulf that exists between man . . . and the elephant and the anthropoid ape."

28 Matt Cartmill, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 222.

28 Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1981).

29 " 'The fact that . . .' " Volker Arzt and Immanuel Birmelin, Haben Tieren ein Bewusstsein?: Wenn Ajfen lugen, wenn Katzen denken und Elefanten traurig «wJ (Munich: C. Bertelsmann, 1993), p. 154. Translation by Jeffrey Masson.

29 "When the subject . . ." "Another assessment of pain in fish comes from a team of researchers under the direction of Professor John Verheijen at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands [in 1988]. They concluded that fish do feel pain and experience fear." R. Barbara Orleans, In the Name of Science:

NOTES

issues in Responsible Animal ILxperirnentation (New York: Oxford L'niversity Press, 1992), p. 148. 29 "The histor)' . . ." E. S. Turner recently commented about his 1964 book All Heaven in a Rage, one of the first books to challenge attitudes toward animals: "In my original introduction I commented that in our attitude to animals we are hopelessly, per\'ersely, inconsistent. Reviewing this book in the Observer, Philip Toynbee followed up the point, remarking that the rage of English foxhunters knew no bounds when they learned that the Russians had shot a dog into space. He thought that a certain pattern could be traced in these bewildering inconsistencies. 'We abominate the cruelties which we are not tempted to perform, and we abominate them all the more when they are practiced by people who do not belong to our own group.' He could have added 'or when they are practiced by people of another nation.' " E. S. Turner, All Heaven in a Rage (Sussex, England: Centaur Press, 1992), pp. 323-24.

29 "Similarly, until the 1980s . . ." This incredible practice is well attested to in medical sources. See K. J. S. Anand and P. J. McGrath, eds.. Pain in Neonates (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1993); Neil Schechter, Charles B. Berde, and iMyron Vaster, eds., Pain in hifants, Children, and Adolescents (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1993); "Medicine and the Media" (editorial), British Medical Journal 295 (September 12, 1987), pp. 659-60; Ian S. Gauntlett; T. H. H. G. Koh; and William A. Silverman, "Analgesia and anaesthesia in newborn babies and infants" (Letters), Lancet, May 9, 1987; Nancy Hall, "The Painful Truth" Parenting (June/July 1992).

30 "Studies showing . . ." R. N. Emde and K. L. Koenig, "Neonatal Smiling and Rapid Eye-movement States," Jownal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 8 (1969), pp. SI-61. Cited in Carroll Izard, Human Emotions (New York and London: Plenum Press, 1977).

32 Article by Frank B. Jevons. Edited by James Hastings. Vol. 1, p. 574.

32 "The philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach . . ." See the article by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky in The Encyclopedia of Religion (ed. by Mircea Eliade), Vol. 1, pp. 316-20 (New York: Macmillan, 1987). Old German dictionaries (e.g. Meyers grosses Konversations-Lexikon of 1903) speak of anthropopathy, specifically ascribing human emotions to objects and animals (!) that cannot experience them. J. J. Rousseau in Emile says: '''Nous sommes pour la plupart de vrais anthropomorphites,'' which may well be, according to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, where the term originates.

32 McFarland, ed., Oxford Companion to Animal Behavior, p. 17.

32 " 'The scientific study . . .' "John S. Kennedy, The New Anthropomorphism (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 3-5.

33 " 'anthropomorphism will be . . .' " Ibid., p. 167.

33 John Andrew Eisher, "Disambiguating Anthropomorphism: An Interdisci-pHnary Review," in Perspectives in Ethology 9 (1991), p. 49.

33 "This is one reason . . ." "Male/female differences in attitudes and knowledge of animals were substantial and implied the need for better understanding and appreciation of female attitudes toward and interests in wildlife. Particularly provocative were variations in basic feelings and ethical concern

NOTES

for animals. The most outstanding result was the much greater humanistic concern for animals among females." Stephen R. Kellert and Joyce K. Berry, Phase III: Knowledge, Affection and Basic Attitudes Toward Animals in American Society (U.S. Fish and Wildhfe Service, 1980), p. 59. Phase Three gives the results of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funded study of American attitudes, knowledge and behaviors toward wildlife and natural habitats. 34 Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), pp. 41-42.

34 Joy Adamson, intro. by J. Huxley, Living Free (U.K.: Collins & Harvill Press, 1961), p. xi.

35 Irene Pepperberg, interview by Susan McCarthy, February 22, 1993.

35 "What is wrong with . . ." This theme is also expressed in Theodore Xeno-phon Barber, The Human Nature of Birds: A Scientific Discovery with Startling Implications (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993).

36 Sy Montgomery, Walking with the Great Apes (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), p. 143.

36 Cynthia Moss, Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family (New York: WilHam Morrow and Co., 1988), p. 37.

36 M. Bekoff and D. Jamieson, "Ethics and the Study of Carnivores," in Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995).

36 "Yet as recently as 1987 . . ." Thomas, "Reflections: The Old Way," p. 99.

36 "Bottle-nosed dolphins . . ." Peter Tyack, "Whistle Repertoires of Two Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus: Mimicry of Signature Whistles?" Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 18 (1989), pp. 251-57.

36 " 'frequently uttered sounds . . .'" Eberhard Gwinner and Johannes Kneutgen, "Uber die biologische Bedeutung der 'zweckdienHchen' Anwendung erlernter Laute bei Vogeln," Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie 19 (1962), pp. 692-96.

37 Mike Tomkies, Last Wild Years (London: Jonathan Cape, 1992), p. 172.

37 Mary Midgley, "The Concept of Beastliness: Philosophy, Ethics and Animal Behavior," Philosophy 48 (1973), pp. 111-35.

37 Kennedy, New Anthropomofphism, p. 87.

38 "How is knowing . . ." "If consciousness has evolved as a biological adaptation for doing introspective psychology, then the presence or absence of consciousness in animals of different species will depend on whether or not they need to be able to understand the behavior of other animals in a social group. Wolves and chimpanzees and elephants, which all go in for complex social interactions, are probably all conscious; frogs and snails and codfish are probably not. . . . The advantage to an animal of being conscious lies in the purely private use it makes of conscious experience as a means of developing an ideology which helps it to model another animal's behavior. It need make no difference at all whether the other animal is actually experiencing the feelings with which it is being credited; all that matters is that its beha\aor should be understandable on the assumption that such feelings provide the reasons for its actions." N. K. Humphrey: "Nature's Psychologists," in Consciousness and the Physical World, B. D. Josephson and V. S.

NOTKS

Rainaclianclran, eels., 57-80 (Oxford, Kngland: Pergainon Press, 1980), pp. 68-69. 38 "N. K. Humphrey writes . . ." In B. D. Josephson and \. S. Ramachan-dran, eds., Conscioiarness and the Physical World (Oxford, Kngland: Pergamon Press, 1980), pp. 57-80.

38 Midgley, Beast and Man: The Roots ofHimian Nature, pp. 41, 344-57. Also see Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1983).

39 J. Ortega y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting. H. B. Wescott, trans. (New York: Scribner's, 1972), pp. 136-38. Italics in the original. Cited from Matt Cartmill, A View to a Death in the Morning, p. 240.

41 "The idea seems to be . . ." One way to avoid such errors has been to pretend that animals are neuter, which has only succeeded in reducing them to things rather than beings. Writing about creative behavior in dolphins for a scientific journal, researcher Karen Pryor was told to call the rough-toothed porpoise Hou "it" rather than "she," on the grounds that "she" should be reserved for referring to humans. Not that being called "she" has humanized women with any security. Refusal to discuss observable facts (Hou was unquestionably female) is hardly scientific. Making the same mistakes about gender in animals that we do in people is no solution to the anthropomorphism taboo. See Karen Pryor, Lads Before the Wind: Adventures in Porpoise Training (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), p. 240; Karen Pryor, Richard Haag, and Joseph O'Reilly, "The Creative Porpoise: Training for Novel ^ehzvior,'' Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12 (1969) pp. 653-61.

41 Mike Tomkies, On Wing and Wild W^fer (London: Jonathan Cape, 1987), pp. 136-37.

42 J. E. R. Staddon, "Animal Psychology: The Tyranny of Anthropocentrism," in Whither Ethology? Perspectives in Ethology, P. P. G. Bateson and Peter H. Klopfer, eds. (New York: Plenum Press, 1989), p. 123.

42 "Deception has been observed . . ." Robert W. Mitchell and Nicholas S. Thompson, eds.. Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986).

43 " 'With a loud grunt . . .' " Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man (London: Collins, 1971), p. 202. Italics in the original.

43 "One respected random . . ." Diana E. H. Russell, The Politics of Rape: The Viaim's Perspective (New York: Stein & Day, 1977); Diana E. H. Russell, Rape in Marriage (New York: Macmillan, 1982); and Diana E. H. Russell and Nancy Howell, "The Prevalence of Rape in the United States Revisited," Signs: Joui-nal of Women in Culture and Society 8 (Summer 1983), pp. 668-95.

43 "Child abuse may ..." Diana E. H. Russell, "The Incidence and Prevalence of Intrafamilial and ExtrafamiHal Sexual Abuse of Female Children," Child Abuse and Neglect: The Intei-national Journal 7 (1983): pp. 133^6; and Diana E. H. Russell, The Seart T?-auma: Incestuous Abuse of Women and Girls (New York: Basic Books, 1986).