Do Animals Hate?

[NeoPlatonic]

Re: Do Animals Hate?

Animals can hate and love, but neither of those are calculated. A pet may hate or love baths, a wolf may hate or love certain kinds of meat, and an eagle may seem to have particular disdain for certain other species... Until we learn that what it actually does is look for a preferred meal.

[DragonsFriend]

Re: Do Animals Hate?

Animals can have preferences and appear to like or dislike certain things but hate is not in their abilities. They are "perfect" creations. The don't aspire to be more than they are and they don't get lazy and not do what they need to stay alive. An animal will never go against its nature. People on the other hand aspire to achieve and grow. We can envy and honor. We choose what we do and sometimes we are not very good at it.
Dogs have a loyalty to their pack and will do anything to protect it. They don't love or hate but they respond instinctively to protect their territory and their pack.

[Jembru]

Re: Do Animals Hate?

I think magpies might hate. Or at least hold a vendetta! Those of you who have seen my altar pics might have noticed an article pined to the right of it, with the title 'So exactly who are you calling bird brain?'. This tells the story of a student in (I think) South Korea who raided a magpie's nest. The magpies caught him in the act, but of course couldn't do much to stop him.

After that, they would wait around the university gates and when they saw him, they'd start swooping down and pecking at him. It didn't matter what he wore and he even tried wearing a disguise, the birds were always able to pick him out of the crowd!

Pretty anecdotal, but I thought it was a cool story. If it is true, then I'd say those magpies were carrying a lot of rage towards the student in question. I'll have to check the article when I'm at home, but I don't remember if he even removed the eggs.

Also... having grown up around horses, as I know others have around here, I can tell you that horses can and do take dislikings to one another. Most horsey folk will know of at least one pair of horses that could never be ridden close together, for fear they'd attempt to kick or bite one another.

[Munin-Hugin]

Re: Do Animals Hate?

Jembru, that makes perfect sense since if I remember correctly, magpies are corvids. The brain-to-body weight ratio of corvidae are the largest of birds, and is only slightly smaller than that of the great apes and humans. It seems that the capacity for hatred and revenge is tied to that ratio and to the level of abstract conceptualization.

[Jembru]

Re: Do Animals Hate?

Jembru, that makes perfect sense since if I remember correctly, magpies are corvids. The brain-to-body weight ratio of corvidae are the largest of birds, and is only slightly smaller than that of the great apes and humans. It seems that the capacity for hatred and revenge is tied to that ratio and to the level of abstract conceptualization.

Yeah.. I originally started to expanded on that idea, but Medusa and Rae'ya pretty much had corvids covered, and I'm trying to get into the habit of cutting my posts down. You're right though, this kind of targeted hate requires quite complex cognitive processes, with a good memory being pretty crucial. It kind of excludes certain species from a chance of being able to hate. As much as we animal lovers like to put them on pedestals at times, I don't believe they're better than us, or saintlier by virtue of not being human. I absolutely adore and respect magies, but I'm not shy to admit that they can be rotten.. calculating, cruel and destructive.. uncannily human, kinda like flying orca!

There has got to be an advantage to developing behaviours that appear to us as hate. It therefore doesn't seem like such a leap of imagination to conclude that hate is a natural and normal phenomenon, an integral component of life on earth. This has been a crucial concept in my getting over my anger over the suffering and cruelty in the world.