Humans are animals, too

[Campine Lover]

Why do some people think we are not? We are mammals, and have the same general skeletal system. I guess some people hate being like animals. Weird. Sorry, I just found a piece on the web about this and on some of the comments the people were going insane about how humans are far superior to animals and we are not related. Um, sorry but humans are the ones who are polluting the planet. sorry, rant. I just don't understand some people. lol

 

[Laurajean]

Yeah, and we're more "animal" than all the rest. We're the only ones who know sin. We're the only ones destroying our planet and all the other animals along with it.

 

[debilorrah]

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Ain;t that the truth!!! Most people hate to be referred to as animals. But we are. Mammals are animals, and mammals we are.

 

[WyandotteTX]

This is a very touchy subject for many people. My own personal belief is that in a great many ways we are better than most animals. Animals left to their own devices will destroy their own environment just the same as humans have done throughout time. Animals have very simplistic ideas of their existence, they want to eat, procreate and not get eaten by something else.
Do they have a sense of family or breeding groups? Of course they do, from Elephants, to Gorillas, White Tailed Deer, Lions etc... But yet again, those family groups go back to their animistic instincts of eat, procreate, not get eaten.
Do they have feelings? Yes, but not so much like we do.
Can they problem solve? Yes.
Can they have higher level thoughts (ie algebra, philosophy, the thought of something bigger than themselves and their animalistic needs)? No, I dont believe they can.
I am not basing this summation on religious beliefs or some kind of narcissistic belief that I am so better than everything else. Trying to base my belief on known science of how animals, including ourselves act.

 

[Laurajean]

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Hee hee, that made me think of a could-be Dr. Suess book. You and that Crazy Cat......

 

[Laurajean]

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Such as?

 

[WyandotteTX]

There are many instances of animals, especially if for whatever reason they become over populated in an area will keep reproducing and destroying their own environment by eating all available food sources until they are depleted.
One example I can think of are elephants in east africa. they feed on trees and forage and will push trees down and destroy entire forests to feed their very large appetites. Forces them to move on to another patch of forest to do the same thing(not too dissimilar to slash and burn techniques used all over the world). The byproduct of this is that the forest then turns to savanna and is then dominated by grasses and the grazers and predators move in and its then an entirely different ecosystem.
As a side note, alot of our domesticated animals would cease to exist to a great degree without us. That is except for dogs and cats because they are predators, even then they would only last so long. They would have to revert back to their feral state to be able to survive. In chickens that means the asian breeds and most of the game varieties would make it because they are a little more hardy and also have very strong survival instincts.

 

[CityChicker]

I totally agree, Campine Lover. If you haven't seen it before, google "Dance, Monkeys, Dance". It is really good. I think you would like it. The more education I get, the more clear it is how similar we are to other animals. A lot of humans though really have this incredible need to separate us from the other animals and take great offense at people who say otherwise.

 

[Tala]

If you take time to REALLY watch people interact, and REALLY watch animals interact, you'll see. People just like to think that they are not "some dumb animal" when they are acting JUST like one

People probably wouldn't describe animals as "dumb" except for the need to make humans seem smarter

 

[Wolfwoman]

Actualy, I think it's an insult to animals to call us that... JMO.

WyandotteTX, animals left to their own do just fine. The elephants that you refer to make a new habitat for other critters, just as nature WANTS it to be. The only time animals destroy their ecosystem is when they are placed there by MAN who thinks they know it all and will make something better by doing so. Earth did just peachy before we came along.