> I don't know any animal, other than humans, that will kill another animal just for the sheer pleasure of it.
How do you know why an animal does something?
Sure, it may eat after it killed, but humans sacrifice a goat it's reasonable to say that they didn't kill it for food even if they do get around to eating it.
When a cat brings mouse butts to its owner, did it kill the mouse for to eat or just as a side effect of the offering? How do you know? Heck - what is the intent of the offering?
BTW - Writing "I don't know any animal" suggests that your knowledge of/experience with animals is comprensive enough to offer as evidence. How about describing said knowledge/experience especially wrt its range? (I've spent hundreds of hours with horses, but I don't claim to know what they're thinking; it's barely enough to make a good guess as to what they might do. I might have a clue wrt cats and dogs, at least specific ones, but I have no chance with birds, reptiles, fish, sea mammals, cattle, elephants, other primates, and so on.)
Yeah, that's a good point. Kind of contradictory of me to say humans are arrogant to pretend to know what animals are thinking and then say myself that animals don't kill for sheer pleasure. So I can't say this for sure, because I don't know.
By "I don't know of" I mean, I haven't observed it, or rather more specifically, I haven't observed behavior that is similar, but I'm still a student of this field of knowledge. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. The chihuahua example above from mrbgty is a curious case. It is interesting though that chihuahuas are an invention of man, bred by man with certain personality traits that may not exist in the wild outside such human influence. Of course there could be myriad examples of it we (I) am not aware of, because we can't read their minds. I'd love to be able to read animal minds though, how awesome would that be?!
I'm no zoologist of course. I did watch a lot of Nature on PBS and that sort of thing, but definitely no expert. Mostly I just find it a fascinating question of what really separates man and animal.
Comments
> I don't know any animal, other than humans, that will kill another animal just for the sheer pleasure of it.
How do you know why an animal does something?
Sure, it may eat after it killed, but humans sacrifice a goat it's reasonable to say that they didn't kill it for food even if they do get around to eating it.
When a cat brings mouse butts to its owner, did it kill the mouse for to eat or just as a side effect of the offering? How do you know? Heck - what is the intent of the offering?
BTW - Writing "I don't know any animal" suggests that your knowledge of/experience with animals is comprensive enough to offer as evidence. How about describing said knowledge/experience especially wrt its range? (I've spent hundreds of hours with horses, but I don't claim to know what they're thinking; it's barely enough to make a good guess as to what they might do. I might have a clue wrt cats and dogs, at least specific ones, but I have no chance with birds, reptiles, fish, sea mammals, cattle, elephants, other primates, and so on.)
Yeah, that's a good point. Kind of contradictory of me to say humans are arrogant to pretend to know what animals are thinking and then say myself that animals don't kill for sheer pleasure. So I can't say this for sure, because I don't know.
By "I don't know of" I mean, I haven't observed it, or rather more specifically, I haven't observed behavior that is similar, but I'm still a student of this field of knowledge. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. The chihuahua example above from mrbgty is a curious case. It is interesting though that chihuahuas are an invention of man, bred by man with certain personality traits that may not exist in the wild outside such human influence. Of course there could be myriad examples of it we (I) am not aware of, because we can't read their minds. I'd love to be able to read animal minds though, how awesome would that be?!
As far as my knowledge, just what biology classes I have taken and reading some books like Darwin's expression of emotions in man and animal. Good read, many versions here: http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:ISBN1417958944&...
I'm no zoologist of course. I did watch a lot of Nature on PBS and that sort of thing, but definitely no expert. Mostly I just find it a fascinating question of what really separates man and animal.