Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentKnight
 
I quite agree.
Not to say that I don't respect Squealer's opinion and belief on the topic - it's obvious he's put some time and effort in to an opposing argument. I just don't agree with it.
It's an interesting topic, either way. |
I appreciate that.
And I agree... to me its just an interesting topic.
I am mostly interested in the brain and brain function. There is no question that cats have primitive brains when compared to human brains. In that, lies an inability for a wide range of mental processing and ability... which we never the less, perceive to be present regardless.
I think a simple argument is this.... if it was truly within a cats ability to understand "child", to feel "attachment" to the child, to understand the child is in danger and then to fight on behalf of the child with purely altruistic motives (risking its life to defend the child), then we would all surely say "sure, that happens all the time". But we definitely can't say that. That itself, should be evidence enough that something else is likely going on.
As someone stated (and assuming the cat wasn't just attacking the dog because thats what cats and dogs do), I would guess that at best, that cat might have a mis-wired maternal response that activated in defense of perceived offspring (assuming it was trying to defend the child)... that however, would also mean the cat has to have some conscious understanding of the child's age and stage of development, that it was threatened and needed defending... all of which are highly unlikely, though possibly it its understanding was simply of the boy was simply "my kitten". This happens all the time when one animal will suddenly take care of young of another,... even the offspring of newly killed prey. It's just a hardwired, innate response which happens automatically and without conscious awareness, reason or thought.
The only studies i've read on feline consciousness and conscious awareness are murkey at best and suggest that the cat perceives its owner to be a large cat and acts accordingly.
It is funny to me to observe how angry people get at the suggestion that the cat is not behaving like a person, when its comforting to believe so.... yet when they lick their ass, eat their own feces or kill and eat their own newborn offspring, we then quickly dismiss that behavior with "that's just what animals do" to then dehumanize it.
Why do people get so angry at all about it?
That fact in itself, is telling. There is a need to believe. There is a need to defend that belief. There is open hostility towards any challenge to that belief. But why? That is the truly interesting question.