Behavior Changes In Animal Research

Presently, animals are mistreated at alarming rates. Humans view animals as a lower caste and sometimes claim their superior cognition and understanding of the world. This leads to the abuse of animals. For instance: animals can be used for testing, killed for sport, or be placed on display for the world to watch. These actions would distress any human and make them extremely uncomfortable, so, why is it acceptable treatment for animals? The rationale for this treatment is found in the human’s belief that animals cannot comprehend death. Consistently, following one animal’s death another will show ‘behavior changes’ these changes are things like not eating, changing locations, impairing themselves, or even burial. How do the behavior changes …show more content…
As many other researchers have, Yukimaru only offers a brief explanation without any reflection, “Japanese macaque mothers sometimes persist in carrying infant corpses until they are covered with flies and completely decayed.” (Yukimaru). The questions researchers have currently been only about what happens and not about why. They give page after page accounts into the lives of these animals with no analysis. As seen in this research, Macaque mothers carry their fallen children till they decay. But, there is no clear answer given by the researchers on whether these monkeys understand what has happened or not. In research of Common Marmoset monkeys, the researchers again, only offer case studies. In Berzerra’s research, “there has been a considerable increase in the number of reports of how nonhuman primates behave in response to the death of group members” (Berzerra). In this example, only a statement is given without any pondering about the reasoning behind this. The researchers give reports of the event with little to no analysis of the actual reasoning behind the behavioral changes. According to their research there are changes in animal behaviors following another animal’s death, like a mother clinging to her death child, and protecting the body of the dying animal from others. In other words, only researching without …show more content…
While this analysis is also important and deserves attention, humans are the masters of their own species. It is important to venture into the lives of animals in order to make sure their treatment is ethical and fair. This means to inquire about their relations not only to humans but to other animals. This is shown in Man Meets Dog by Lorenz. “There is the severe mental conflict which every master has to undergo” (Lorenz), this “severe mental conflict” is the human’s reaction to death. Lorenz analyzes the emotions of humans as their beloved pets die. Weil, also addresses the way that humans react to death and the knowledge that humans can gain about themselves at the death of an animal. As Weil states, “What exactly might an animal death do for us, not in terms of what it might supply us as food or clothing, but rather might there be any “knowledge” gained from seeing an animal die” (Weil). That is, the knowledge that humans can gain about themselves. Weil should be focusing on the way that animals react to death. The knowledge that can be gained through the behavior of animals in reaction to death is also and worth