Triggered by abuse or mistreatment, animals undergo depression and anxiety too, along with compulsive disorders, obsession and dementia. But acknowledging parallels between animals and humans is a blow to the idea humans are the only species to think or express emotion in complex and surprising ways.
DALLAS DARLING: ‘Detailing a harrowing story of a pig at a British slaughterhouse, Matthew Scully, wrote in “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy,” reported: “Here were innocent, living creatures, and they deserved better than their market value which had been diminished. Slaughtering the animals were simply the quick and convenient thing to do. But does the same go for our scientific laboratories or what we call human progress? After all, hasn’t human progress caused the mass extinction of hundreds of species? Laboratories, meanwhile, are filled with strange new beings, genetically engineered, cloned, and patented just like products”…
Humans aren’t the only ones to suffer from emotional and mental illnesses. Charles Darwin came to this realization as he found nonhuman animals can suffer from mental illnesses that are quite similar to human disorders. By witnessing many animals undergoing extreme fear, anxiety and compulsions, he even wondered if identifying insanity in other animals might tell us about ourselves. Since every animal – including humans – with a mind have the capacity to lose hold of it from time to time, the answer was yes. Triggered by abuse or mistreatment, animals undergo depression and anxiety too, along with compulsive disorders, obsession and dementia…
But acknowledging parallels between animals and humans is a blow to the idea humans are the only species to think or express emotion in complex and surprising ways. So too is the idea the mental health of humans is dependent on the mental health of animals. A better truth, however, may be nonhuman. Neither would it be human or self-centered, unable to recognize the bits and pieces of humanness in other animals and vice versa. In such a world, empathy and a healthy relationship towards animals will only make humanity better versions of themselves’. SOURCE…
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