Posts Tagged ‘Ethics and Cetacean Welfare’
Australia’s motivation: Japan attacks
Whilst Australia’s motivation for bringing the case on Japanese Scientific Whaling to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may be the result of domestic public pressure, the Government of Japan seems to have a more sceptical perspective. Presenting their oral arguments to the court Japan argued that: ‘Another aspect of the case pertains to confining the…
Read MoreDolphin Slams into Wall at Ocean Park Hong Kong: Is this Normal?
Video of a dolphin slamming into a concrete wall circulated around the Internet today. Although a statement by Ocean Park Hong Kong on its Facebook page indicated that this was ‘normal’ and frequent behavior for the 14-year old female dolphin named Pinky, we have cause for concern for such incidents and understand why the public…
Read MoreIdentifying and respecting other personalities: stories to inspire
The study of animal personalities is rapidly become one of the fastest growing areas of research in behavioural biology and ecology. The term ‘personality’, within this context, is used to describe significant behavioural and physiological differences between individuals of the same species, which are consistent over time in different contexts or situations. For field researchers,…
Read MoreWE ARE NOT ALONE: scientists conclude whales, dolphins and many other species are conscious
Consciousness is often perceived as an ethereal notion which is difficult to pin down. However, finally, a group of eminent scientists meeting to discuss the neurobiological basis of conscious experience and related behaviours agreed that: “Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity…
Read MoreOrca rights: stuff and nonsense?
In the post festive haze, as we wade through the sea of discarded Christmas presents, it is hard not to recognise that one of the things that sets us humans apart from many other species (but perhaps not quite all species), is our relationship with ‘stuff’. We make it, we buy it, we collect it, we…
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