Wednesday 9 October 2013

are dogs our property or are they our responsibility?

Slavenka has posted a link to a most interesting article. Research scientists have trained dogs to stand motionless in a brain imaging scanner, the first time canine volunteer subjects have been used in this way. (The dogs are free to walk away from the scanner if they wish.)

And the results will be no surprise to dog owners. Dogs' brain activity shows they have many of the same reactions and emotions as we do.

The article raises the question of what this means for ethical treatment of our dogs. They are considered 'property' in most countries. (In fact I don't know any places where this is not the case.)

But if they feel and think in a similar way to a young human, don't they deserve the protection we extend to our own species?

It's a good read and I recommend it to all.

4 comments:

Lilli said...

I read it too and I was waiting when you are going to post about it ;) (I knew you would be interested about this too).

Finally we got scientific proof to that which we dog people have known for years! But maybe next step would be to teach other animals too to step in the scanner :) Dogs were the easiest one to teach but it's not impossible to teach others too, with a lot of patience and time. We might be surprised again what we'll see :)

-Lilli-

Molly the Airedale said...

This sounds like a most interesting article. We're off to read it! Thank you, Penny!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

parlance said...

Lilli, it sure is an interesting insight into the canine brain. I'll be keen to read more of this type of research.

parlance said...

Mitch and Molly, sometimes when I look at your photos, I can just see your brains working!