Conscious Choice Seattle: Pet Smart

February 2006 | Feature Story

Pet Smart

Research is building a case for proving that pets think and feel emotions like people

By Rebecca Clarren

My cat Arthur may only have three legs but he is smarter than several members of my family. He never forgets a face, he understands two languages and when I’m upset, he purrs in my ear. Sometimes when Arthur stares at me I’m sure he’s reading my mind.

Here’s what I imagine saying to certain friends who show me a child snapshot.

“Oh, and this is your daughter? Oh really, she’s learning to read now? That’s nice. Did I mention that Arthur can tell when I’m sad? ”

Pet lovers, rejoice. Science has validated our enthusiastic bragging–at least to a degree. In recent years an increasing amount of research finds dogs and cats, plus birds and other animals, are far more intelligent and emotionally astute than previously believed by mainstream society. While we may be far from forming a Mensa Society for animals, this new science indicates that we may want to rethink our current treatment of critters.

“I’m incredulous at how much stuff is coming out all the time on animal emotions and the general rubric of animal cognition,” says Marc Bekoff, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “We’re rewriting our stereotypes about animals with good scientific data.

“What’s really exciting about all of this [data] is that it has huge implications for how we interact with and treat other animals. "

It was only about a decade ago that scientists were debating whether animals had emotions at all: a Golden Retriever that looks glum isn’t necessarily so, said many biologists. Today, for the most part, that debate is finished. Scholars have begun to accept the once radical notion that animals such as dogs possess subtle mental states such as envy and empathy.

Dogs and fair play

Scientist Bekoff has spent the past 35 years studying animal behavior. His work finds that dog behavior is not all obviously instinctive but that dogs cooperate and implement standards of fairness while playing. After watching countless videotapes of dogs playing, Bekoff noticed that while interacting, they constantly signal their intentions and check to ensure that their actions are interpreted correctly by their peers. The group would ostracize those dogs that indicated a playful bite but delivered a harsh one.

“It indicates that animals have a sense of morality and that’s tied to intelligence because they to have a sense of self, they have to be able to understand right from wrong,” says Bekoff.

Other science shows that dogs are more complex communicators than was previously thought. One series of experiments published in Science during 2004 shows that a border collie from Germany named Rico is able to use a process of elimination to deduce that a new sound must be the name of a previously unseen toy.

Guess who else uses this technique?

Toddlers. It’s called “fast mapping,” a way to learn new words. Scientists have never before thought that animals could do this as well. As reported, Rico’s owner would ask the dog to find and retrieve a specific toy from an adjacent room. This furry beast retrieved 37 out of 40 items correctly.

In total, researchers report that Rico has a vocabulary of more than 200 words and retains new information weeks later. Rico may be a dog genius—it’s hard to know if all dogs could ape his aptitude—yet his abilities prompt other scientists to speculate whether dogs might be able to speak if they just had the necessary anatomy.

“When making the point that language requires more than just the right environment, psychologists often point out that both a baby and a dog are exposed to language, but only the baby learns to talk,” writes Paul Bloom, a Yale psychologist analyzing the study in a Science opinion essay. “This example may have to change.”

While Bloom states that far more research is necessary to define how Rico’s learning compares with that of a child, he adds the study “might signal the emergence of a vibrant area of comparative cognition research.”

‘Bird brain’ no more

A note for those of us humans who have a hard time recalling phone numbers or misplaced keys: the Clark’s Nutcracker, a bird found throughout the Cascade and Rocky Mountains, has memories that put many of us to shame. Clark’s Nutcracker feed primarily on the seeds of the whitebark pine, a regal windblown tree that clings to the high country. But the nutcrackers don’t eat all their food at once. Rather, they store up to 100 seeds in their cheek pouch and then bury caches of the seeds in as many as 9,000 different locations.

Due to an enlarged region in the brain that dictates spatial memory, the nutcrackers use forest features such as downed logs to help them remember their storage sites. If the log is moved 10 feet north, the bird will look for its seeds 10 feet north of where they really are.

“They’re not bird brains, far from it,” says David Dalton, laughing. He is a biology professor at Portland-based Reed College and writing a book that applies modern biological research to the findings of Lewis and Clark.

Another often-maligned animal—sheep—may also be smarter than previously thought. It turns out that sheep can remember up to 50 individual sheep faces—even in profile—for at least two years, according to British scientists at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. The animals’ recall stems from a similar part of the brain that humans use when introducing each other at cocktail parties.

Feelings and felines

Cat lovers have grounds for satisfaction too. New studies show cats have fallen prey to inaccurate stereotypes—they aren’t the anti-social snobs as society has labeled them. In fact, authors Janet and Steven Alger discussed just the opposite in their 2003 book Cat Culture: The Social World of a Cat Shelter. After four years of observation, the Algers found that cats actively initiated ways of running the shelter, were social with other cats, formed bonds with humans and, despite the crowded nature of the shelter, weren’t aggressive.

“Our research tells us the old image of animals operating on the basis of instinct and being preprogrammed in their behavior doesn’t fit,” says Steve Alger, a sociology professor at St. Rose College in Albany, N.Y. “They were able to shape social communities and adjust their behavior to different situations I think it has to indicate that they’re more intelligent than has been thought."

Alger and other researchers contend this research should lead us to rethink the way we treat animals in places like factory farms, zoos and medical labs. It also has application for rethinking the way we care for sick pets.

Nancy Scanlon, a holistic veterinarian in Sherman Oaks, Calif., says the growing body of data vindicates what holistic doctors have said for decades: that many animal illnesses may be exacerbated by a mental component such as anxiety and that it’s important to treat mind and body in tandem. Based in large part on new research, an entire specialty of pain management for pets has emerged in the last decade.

“There is a continuum; I don’t think we can say anymore that man is king and animals are peons. We’re companions,” says Scanlon. “With this new science [my clients] can say, ‘This proves what I’ve always thought.’ ”

Hah. So, you want to see Arthur’s picture now?

Rebecca Clarren is a Portland-based writer. This is her first piece for Conscious Choice.

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