Animal Cognition and Learning
This companion to a university course provides background for classes about analysis of cognition and behavior in animals. Includes historical background (with material about the work of Charles Darwin, Ivan Pavlov and others), and material about intelligence, perception, conditioning and complex behavior (such as tool use and language use in animals). Also includes links to related sites.  From a psychology professor at Tufts University.

The Concept That Animals Are Sentient - possessing a level of conscious awareness, and able to have feelings - was recognised by the European Union in 1997.

“For as long as humans have domesticated animals and have articulated a social consensus ethic, it has included an ethic for the treatment of animals, albeit a very limited one. That traditional ethic has been an ethic forbidding cruelty to animals, that is, deliberate, sadistic, useless, unnecessary infliction of pain, suffering, and neglect on animals.”
— Bernard E. Rollin, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Colorado State University, in his book Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues

“You are not handling a lump of plastic. You are handling animals with central nervous systems that feel pain and suffering.”
— Janice Swanson, animal behavior specialist at Kansas State University, addressing a United Egg Producers meeting

“Killing an animal is not the same thing as mowing the grass. A life ends. That’s something you take seriously. What does the word ‘sacred’ mean? You do not treat it as an ordinary thing. Killing cattle is not the same as running grain through a mill.”
— Temple Grandin, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University

“ Recent research has revealed that birds are capable of complex cognition . . . it is now clear that birds have cognitive capacities equivalent to those of mammals, even primates . . . it should be realized that even vastly improved intensive systems are unlikely to meet the cognitive demands of the hitherto underestimated chicken brain. . . . With the increased knowledge of the behaviour and cognitive abilities of the chicken has come the realization that the chicken is not an inferior species to be treated merely as a food source.”
— Lesley Rogers, Ph. D., Professor of Physiology, University of New England, in her book The Development of Brain and Behavior in the Chicken

“That’s one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. It’s like grieving, mourning––not much written about it. People don’t like to allow them thoughts or feelings.”
— Temple Grandin, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, referring to a reaction of a mother cow when her calf was taken from her, as quoted in Oliver W. Sacks’s An Anthropologist on Mars

“Animals are sentient beings with an intrinsic worth.”
— Margareta Winberg, Swedish Agricultural Minister, speaking to an EU conference focusing on humane treatment of animals in Europe

“The very fact that companion animals are so highly regarded raises difficult issues for agricultural and performance animal doctors. Some of these animals are not markedly different in their mental capacities from many companion animals. At a time the profession seeks to promote companion animals as members of the family, to what extent must it also advocate the interests of its food, farm, and performance animal patients?. . . Nevertheless, discussions devoid of attention to animal interests are appearing with frequency in the literature espousing the model of the veterinarian as herd health consultant.”
— Jerrold Tannenbaum, M.A., J.D., Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, in his book Veterinary Ethics: Animal Welfare, Client Relations, Competition and Collegiality

“There is much evidence showing that animals have sophisticated systems for regulating their lives and that they are much disturbed if they cannot control certain aspects of what happens to them. There is also good evidence for elaborate systems for detecting and responding to painful stimuli.”
— A. F. Fraser, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and D. M. Broom, Professor of Animal Welfare at Cambridge, in their book Farm Animal Behavior and Welfare

“Humans who enslave, castrate, experiment on and fillet other animals, have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them—without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”
— Dr. Carl Sagan & Dr. Ann Druyan, in their book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

 

"Can We Trust Research Done with Lab Mice?"

The July, 2003 edition of Discover Magazine includes a story, beginning on page 64, headed, "Can We Trust Research Done with Lab Mice? New studies show that animals used in critical experiments may be out of their minds." It is written by Barry Yeoman. The opening paragraph is included on the Discover website:

"In the early 1990s, a soft-spoken doctoral candidate at Switzerland's leading university asked a deceptively simple question: What do all those laboratory mice do after the researchers and technicians go home for the night? It wasn't a frivolous query. In a typical animal research lab, most rodents' lives are spent in shoebox-size enclosures containing food, water, bedding, and nothing else, all stacked from the floor to the ceiling on uniform steel racks. Hanno Würbel, the young animal behaviorist who asked the question, knew that mice living in such barren housing often develop bizarre behaviors, such as turning endless backward somersaults. But because mice are nocturnal animals, most scientists are asleep when the critters are active."

The rest of the article may be available on line once the July issue is no longer on news stands. I will give a brief summary and some quotes below but recommend that those interested in this field pick up the magazine -- the article is lengthy and fascinating.

Wurbel set up a video camera:

"When he reviewed the videotape, Wurbel saw something reminiscent of home movies made at a psychiatric hospital. In the dark, the mice performed the same useless tasks repeatedly, with such a compulsive persistence that Wurbel couldn't help but think something had gone awry in their brains. In one sequence, a mouse climbs the stainless steel walls of its cage, hangs from the ceiling by its forelegs while gnawing on the bars, then drops to the floor, only to repeat the process endlessly. On the other side of the cage, a second mouse performs backflips, one per second for up to 30 minutes at a time. Animal behaviorists refer to highly regimented repetitive activities with no apparent purpose as stereotypies. Some of Wurbel's mice exhibited stereotypic behaviors for half of their waking hours."

The stereotypies seem to start out as functional activities, trying to escape the cage, for example, but soon morph into ritualized behaviors.

Wurbel has concluded that much research relies on brain damaged subjects and therefore could lack validity.

We read that a clean cage with nothing else has been the international norm; unless they are studying the effects of enrichment versus impoverishment, most scientists see no reason for changing that. However, Yeoman points to studies conducted back in the 1950's by Mark Rosenweig at Berkeley, which found that animals' enzyme levels were affected by their environments.

Regarding the effect on biomedical testing:
"In the 47 years since Rosenweig reported his pioneering work, scientists have come up with more anecdotal evidence that keeping animals under different conditions can dramatically alter research outcomes. For example, lead contaminated drinking water damages the brains of impoverished mice but not the enriched ones. Rats can tolerate 60 times more uranium if they're allowed time to acclimate to new cages, and even dim light in the lab at night speeds up tumor growth by inhibiting production of the hormone melatonin."

Fifty years seems a long time to have this sort of information without acting on it. But scientists whose grant incomes are not directly affected by the validity of their experiments are reluctant to admit that psychological damage affects outcome. Wurbel, however, says, "The point that the environment might change behavior but it doesn't change biology is ridiculous. Every behavior has a physiological background."

Wurbel would like to see "a time where we will have natural-like, although heavily managed, populations of rats or mice, maybe in big enclosures, representing whole populations."

The article follows this point and ends with an interesting quote from Würbel: " But you know what the problem is with this? If we get to the stage where we think we need to treat the animals this way, experimenting on them will probably become impossible -- because that would mean they would almost achieve the same status that we have."

I worry that the article gives the impression that mouse madness is the only factor making their use scientifically unsound. Those interested in the range of factors which make animal testing an increasingly outdated form of study will find extensive information on the topic at:
http://www.CureDisease.com

Nor will more interesting environments solve the ethical issues.

Yet, the article is a positive step, as it calls into question the validity of laboratory experiments, and also because it portrays laboratory animal suffering in a way that is unusual in the mainstream media. It makes it clear that anesthesia and painkillers (both shockingly under-used) do not solve the animal welfare issues.

Yeoman's article stresses scientific validity; he states that it is of greater concern than the also important issue of animal welfare. However, immediately following Yeoman's article is one by David Berreby headed " Saving Private Squeaky." Berreby notes that different rats, who appear identical, will have radically different rates of learning, and behave differently in experimental situations. His article refers to the "reward" he realized a group of rats with whom he was doing maze work were going to get for their efforts - euthanization. It focuses on his choice to save his favorite, the smartest, but one realizes that the rat's less favored
cage-mates fared badly. The article is touching, and a nice balance to Yeoman's piece which concentrates almost exclusively on science.

The two excellent articles open the door for letters to the editor on related issues that were not addressed. One issue is the scientific validity of testing on rodents, regardless of their living conditions. Another is the question of our right as a species to do as we please with those of other species, just because we can. Publications are generally far more likely to publish positive letters, but one can make one's points in the context of an appreciative letter to the editor.