"When someone with the strong emotional bias that animal rightist have, go out with the " need to prove animals have the same human qualities" mind set, will never produce fact in my mind."


I wonder if the pack wolves that just brutaly murdered the woman at Chignick Lake Alaska last week will qualify for a attorney.......

Hi David,

You, your community, and especially the family of the young woman killed have my heartfelt sympathies. Losing a young person in the prime of life is a terrible tragedy.

Alan

When we call a tragic killing of a human a "brutal murder" we judge the wolves from a human moral perspective. If so, all of the wolfs kills are brutal murders.

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In Sweden we have 200 wolves. Hunters see them as a threat to their own hunting, a threat to their dogs and sheep owners also lose a fair amount of animals to wolves (and to lynx). 4000 hunters set out to kill 27 wolves in January. There is also a fear of wolves attacking humans in the rural areas.

Brown bear in Alaska are obviously more dangerous than their swedish relatives. Is that so also with the wolf? And I did not think that mountain lion was dangerous to man until I got that knowledge when I visited California for the first time.

All animals have the capacity to attack man or each other. I guess that's why we call them animals.

Hi David,

Human beings are also completely capable of killing each other or other animals. There are rare occasions when human society feels it is OK to kill another human, war or self-defense (including legal executions). But for the most part, killing people think killing each other is not a moral act.

The wolves probably saw the young woman as prey, legitimate food. Human society never really sees any reason why an animal predator should be allowed to kill a human. So it is completely reasonable to protect ourselves against the animal predators either by being cautious and informed or if necessary by eliminating the threat. However, judging the wild animal predators by human standards presumes that they can judge moral acts in identical fashion to a human. I personally doubt a wild animal can make that judgement according to our human standards.

I am unsure exactly how to approach this and the broader subject from a documentary point of view, but it clearly is an important one.

Alan

Why do dogs like some people, and don't like others? A dog decides within seconds whether it likes a person or not. Once a dog makes that decision, it rarely changes it's mind.

How does a dog make a judgement call when meeting a stranger for the first time? I have seen it happen over and over. Expecially with larger dogs or German Shepards.

Something is going on here.

I have seen the same thing with cats or horses. The horses would be stick to me like glue, but would have nothing to do with the person with me.

Aminals are making some kind of judgement. What it is, I have no idea.

I know of no one in my area that has been threaten by a Brown Bear while jogging. But I know of many occassions were Brown Bear have threatened people riding Mountain Bikes.

I agree!

We have enough trouble understanding why other humans do what they do let alone why an animal does something. To understand an animal means you need to know how an animal thinks and what motivates it to make the decisions it does. It is one thing to guess, to make theories, but it is quite something else to actually "know." Very mysterious stuff.

Alan