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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Growing up, you may have been told that animals do not have feelings. You may have seen your pet as a commodity, rather than a family member. Perhaps you were told as a youth that humans are superior to animals.
Sherborn-based anthrozoology professor Paul Waldau challenged those who grew up being taught such things to reconsider animal intelligence at his lecture and discussion at the Sherborn Community Center on April 10.
Waldau is well versed in animal studies, law, ethics, religion, and cultural studies, and teaches at both Canisius University in Buffalo, New York, and at Harvard Law School.
Just like he does with his students, Waldau established early in the program that he does not use the phrase “humans and animals.”
“‘Humans and animals’ is the way our education, our law, our ethics, our religions, and other major discourses and other institutions talks,” he said.
“We’ve all been trained to talk this way. In other words, we’re good at aping, or mimicking. We’re talking in the way that we’re trained, but if we take responsibility for how we talk, you might think, ‘Actually, I know I’m an animal, but why is it publicly a disgrace to stand up and say that?’”
Too often, we discredit animals’ intelligence and maintain the belief that we are superior beings, even though many studies show that humans inherited many traits from other animals – even fish and reptiles. While it is true that humans have made more advancements in the world than Earth’s other species of animals, we have not survived for nearly as long as some.
One participant wondered if animals like cockroaches could be considered smarter than humans because of their ability to survive hundreds of millions of years.
Similarly, could birds be considered smarter because they have the ability to remember over 30 thousand places they’ve hidden food?
“Going back to reptiles or some more removed kind of animal, they have other kinds of intelligence that was very useful,” said Waldau, discussing their adaptability to Earth’s changes.
“I mentioned those elephant ancestors earlier that have big EQ: big brains compared to their huge bodies that rival our encephalization quotient.”
Despite having the same EQ, those elephants were unable to live to our time. Waldau insists that their inability to survive does not translate to a lack of intelligence.
“If you took your education seriously, now you might look back and say, ‘Well, there was a kind of self-inflicted ignorance about other animals, because all we did was talk about humans,’” said Waldau.
Even if you were misinformed about animals as a child, it’s never too late to prove your own intelligence and learn about animals’ brains and abilities.
