Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Wed Mar 21, 2018 6:22 pm
So I thought this too, but now I'm not sure.
How do we know that animals don't have some notion of other organisms eating and are able to specifically prefer not to be eaten, distinct from simply not wanting to be killed?
They would also require a similar notion of body and lack an understanding of their own corpse as distinct from their living body.
Not sure what you mean here. Are you asking how we know nonhuman animals don't have some kind of aversion to the action of eating animals? I don't have an answer to this question. Animals can't exactly perfectly communicate or vocalize their perceptions to us.
Many animals do exhibit rather odd, inexplicable behavior regarding the death of "relatives." Biologist Joyce Poole has observed elephants remaining with corpses for days on end, sometimes even attempting to revive it. Other elephants have been observed moving on and returning to the corpse and "sitting vigil" mutable times.
Chimps, gorillas, and dogs have also been observed acting unusually around death, fondling the corpse, remaining near it for extended periods of time, and overall drastic change of behavior. Chimp mothers are known to carry deceased infants around on their backs for days or months.
https://www.wired.com/2011/04/what-death-means-to-primates/
Is this grief? Their behavior (albeit "simplistic") is similar to human behavior and seems to suggest some kind of grasp of mortality and sadness for the death of "relatives."
To relate this to your question, I don't know how an animal would react it were to witness one eating another animal's corpse. Obviously if a calf's mother dies and I begin dragging the mother's corpse away, they may still recognize it as its mother.
It's highly unlikely that animals associate products, like ground beef, fried chicken, and hamburgers with animals and grieve at the sight of humans consuming them.
I doubt animals have any meaningful understanding on the implications of eating other animals. It's more likely they just don't want to be killed.
Something tells me I'm misunderstanding your question. Apologies in advance
Feel free to clarify