Alex the Parrot
I was reading
Michael Bane's post on Alex the Parrot, an African Grey parrot, and I was struck by something I think bothers the rest of us.
I'm a hunter. I've been a hunter all my life. I've hunted flies for my grandmother armed with her well used fly swatter. I've hunted fish. I've hunted groundhogs and squirrels and deer and mourning dove and crows and turkey and grouse and pheasant and shot a few other animals I'd rather not have shot but felt I needed to shoot. I've been a pet "owner", too. My family had a German Shepherd and a Golden Retreiver when I was growing up, my first wife and I had a cat, and my latest wife and I have a Miniature Schnauzer (who is here with me at work).
This posting disturbs me and I think it likely would disturb most hunters. I bet they are bothered a bit by similar stories about dolphins and chimpanzees and gorillas. I think you know why this bothers hunters but if not...
Hunters kill animals. Hunters, most of them, eat animals. Now we don't go out hunting and eating parrots, chimpanzees or gorillas (at least not in this country) so why does a "smart", thinking, communicating parrot, chimpanzee or gorilla bother me. Well, I guess we all kinda suspect that other primates might be almost as smart as we are in at least some way. That's probably why most of us are repelled by the idea of eating another primate. But a bird, even a parrot, now that's got your attention, right? Well it gets my attention.
It gets my attention because all my life I've heard the expression "bird brain" which not only implies limited intelligence but a definite lack of organizational skills and here is a bird that not only can learn vocabulary but use that vocabulary to string together sentences and apply those sentences to communicate appropriately and to initiate communication. We never guessed such things were possible 40 years ago.
It gets my attention because it changes how I view the animals I eat. Now, I know too that there are animals and birds who would eat me, given the opportunity, maybe even my own dog so I'm not grossed out by eating animals. However, I do think more about what that animal might or might not have been thinking.
Labels: Culture
