One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison. – Bertrand Russell Pigs, sheep and cows–too bright to eat?
ABC network news tonight (Sat May 14) carries an extraordinary update on animal intelligence. A pig has learned to operate a computer joystick to manoever a small square cursor into a rectangular area to release food into its trough at will. A Russell fox terrier was unable to learn to do this in a year. A sheep also managed an IQ test of some kind, and there was some kind of evidence that cows actually get excited when they solve a problem, not to mention that they make meaningful friends with other cows.
Unfortunately, ABC’s news site does not respond to searching for computer + pigs or similar, so we will have to google for more. Meanwhile Jane Goodall is asked whether we all should be vegetarian, if farm animals are so much more conscious of meaning that we have thought. She says she has been vegetarian for a long time.
All this certainly throws new light on the cruelties of the factory system for meat production in this country.