Animals can tell right from wrong

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5373379/Animals-can-tell-right-from-wrong.html

Ya know, people have always said that dogs don't have guilt when they pee on your rug - that they're cuing off the human's displeasure. I could never understand how my dog could cue off my displeasure when I walk through the door and I didn't even know the dog peed on the rug, but the dog greets me in a guilty manner. . . did that thought of mine make any sense?

Yep, I know that look. Our girl Murphy has that look often!

I haven't had time to follow the link yet, but my experience is that any trainable animal can connect an action on their part with a negative consequence. The rest comes down to memory and social nature. IME a dog will connect having done something for which it has been previously chastised with the PERSON, a cat will connect it with the action and will quickly learn that if the person isn't there the negative consequence doesn't happen. A horse will have moved on, unless the transgression ocurred right in front of the person. I have not yet figured out birds in this respect. They actually have yet to destroy something when I wasn''t looking. The cat doesn't expect the relationship to be affected and hence does not seem guilty, the dog does and acts in a guilty/submissive manner to regain favor. So I think they definitely know an act can be "wrong" in the sense that bad things happen when they do it.

Whether they have a moral sense of right and wrong is a much more complicated question.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

So I think they definitely know an act can be "wrong" in the sense that bad things happen when they do it.

Whether they have a moral sense of right and wrong is a much more complicated question.

I agree it's not a moral sense of right and wrong. It's learned behavior that certain behaviors are or are not acceptable in the animals' pack structure.

Human morals are the same way. A lot of it is culturally dictated and learned.

I do not need to read the book to know that( on the other hand book will be a good to relax)!

Take a look at your pets: even my bunny knew, when he did something wrong. The "It wasn't me face"
And I bet everybody could go on and on with examples!

Merlin tells on himself when he knows he's doing something he shouldn't be.

And Fynn pooped in the bird room the other day - as soon as we noticed, we found him in his kennel with his head guilty with shame.

mango nipped my thumb cause he didn't want to go back into the cage and i scolded him...later on this afternoon as he and i sat in the jeep waiting for my son i told him i was still angry and not to do it again...he bend down and kissed my sore thumb...just a coincidence i think...or was it....lol

dusty

dusty wrote:

mango nipped my thumb cause he didn't want to go back into the cage and i scolded him...later on this afternoon as he and i sat in the jeep waiting for my son i told him i was still angry and not to do it again...he bend down and kissed my sore thumb...just a coincidence i think...or was it....lol

dusty

I'd like to think he knew what he was doing