I Have To Know, Do You Anthropomorphize Your Animals?

[Gatekeeper]

Fess up!! Show and tell!!

I do, do you?

My animals hate me when I do

Gate


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anthropomorphize

 

[Buff Hooligans]

My chickens all got together as a committee and decided they don't want me to anthropomorphize them anymore. I got the memo in my morning oatmeal. It was devastating, but they seem to feel no remorse for hurting my feelings.

 

[carlf]

Do I give them names, talk to them & care about them? Of course.

But I do not anthropomorphize their behavior or actions.
They do what they do because they are chickens. Not little feathered humans.
If you understand their needs and instinctive behaviors, you will have a better understanding of why they do what they do when they do it.
But dont equate that with human emotional behaviors.

I take good care of them and they provide me with eggs and entertainment.
And when the time comes, they will provide a pot of chicken soup.

 

[Katy]

I do with my cats and dogs to some extent, but I don't my chickens or our cattle. Not a good thing to do when you might be eating them at some point in time.

 

[Beekissed]

I think this forum is great and would love to see more discussion here. It's a struggle I have all the time, really because I'm a person with complex emotion and a complicated life, like most other people. Animals live by instinct, and there is no other thoughts of "what if" because food, water, sleep, biological functions is all the birds have time for anyway.

How do you sort your emotions and projections for the sake of the birds and their well being?

I can't speak for others but I can tell you how I keep things in their proper place....by knowing the birds had a Creator, that He expects me to be a good steward and have dominion over them, which means I put my own feelings aside in order to perform that duty well. I realize He created them for a certain kind of life on this Earth, so I try to give them that kind of life as closely as I possibly can. I commit my actions to Him when regarding their existence and how I can help them fulfill their purpose on this Earth.

This is how I keep my emotions in their proper place, by giving the chickens their proper place and realizing we are not just random creatures arriving on this Earth by accident in an accidental universe. I have a Maker, He created me in His own image...but He did not create the chicken in His own image. This helps me keep straight that a chicken is a chicken and not a human. As a human I have emotions that I can control and the intellect to sort out feelings, to give them a proper place too. Ultimately, the welfare of the flock, then the individual bird, is in my care and I can set aside my own emotions in order to do that as He would have me do.

 

[carlf]

Reminded me of a situation a years or so ago:

Someone was talking to my little girl about the chickens and she was going on about how much fun it was to raise them & gather eggs, etc..
Then they asked my daughter what we will do with out chickens once they stopped laying eggs.
She looked at them kinda baffled and said "we gonna eat them of course".

 

[leafhopperfarm]

This is an interesting article, even though it doesn't mention chickens:

Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts to Our Humanizing of Animals
Alexandra C. Horowitz and Marc Bekoff
Anthrozoös, Volume 20 (Issue 1), pp.23-25, 2007.

Very interesting article, long, but full of great info, some very outdated though, wondering if there is a more recent study? Also, domestic dogs are so much closer to us in the evolutionary cycle because we've been breeding and working with them for thousands more years than the domestic chicken of today. Though we are now breeding chickens for looks more and more as we have done with dogs since they first began a working relationship with us when we really needed added protection, hunting support, and something to pull our belongings around for us as we moved in hunter/gatherer groups. Chickens have been bred for eggs and meat, till more recently the designer breeds for looks have become more and more popular. This is where the anthropomorphizing can be a hinder. We breed for looks rather than use, and loose the important qualities in the animal that formed the original "usefulness" relationship. There are still working dog breeds, but at least here in the USA, working breeds that actually work are dropping in number, compared to the golden retriever and toy breeds, which are companion animals.

What I did not see in this article is anything about the point I made earlier; that animals are connected to their instincts, while humans rely on emotions and a very complex brain structure that allows for abstract thought. The chickens and dogs can react to us, but it's on a primal level of response. The fetch game comes from that working relationship for the dog, while we now see it as a game for fun. It was once a training method for hunting, and you can still see it in working retrievers today. The dog is chasing the ball in a pray drive, while the human throws the ball for fun. That's where a clear distinction can be made, and we can step back from our emotional feelings to recognize the instincts of the animal at work.

 

[spydertoys]

Guilty as charged!!!

 

[ravenfeathers]

absolutely.

i give them running commentaries based on their personalities, too.

 

[chick4chicks]

yeppers i do. LOL.