- The boy plays practical jokes on his neighbors, calling them to come save him from an imaginary wolf.
- Eventually, the villagers learn that he is joking and they do not respond to his cries for help.
- One day when a real wolf attacks him the villagers were habituated to the boy’s cries and no one goes to save him.
Conditioning . . .
Conditioning is a process of a change in behaviour where an animal eventually leers to link a desired behaviour with a previously unrelated stimulus.
To the right is an example of classical conditioning.
- Food is the unconditioned stimulus or (UCS). This response occurred naturally.
- The salivation to the food is an unconditioned response (UCR), which is a response which occurs naturally.
- The bell is the conditioned stimulus (CS) because it will only produce salivation on condition that it is presented with the food.
- Salivation to the bell alone is the conditioned response (CR), a response to the conditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a specific behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour.
We can find examples of operant conditioning all around us, such as children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher. In this example, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behaviour, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease behaviour. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviours. For example, a child may be told they will lose pocket money if they don’t do their homework.
Humans can make use of both types of conditioning when training captive animals, but is this right or wrong? Humans can make use of conditioning when training captive animals for a specific purpose.
Early experiences . . .
An animals early experiences in life can have a big impact on the way that it behaves later on in life as an adult. For example if at a young age a dog is treated badly by a man then later on in life it will be scared of men but may not be scared of women. Another example of this is the amount of migratory birds that choose the nesting location of their first breeding season to be one for the rest of its life. It has been something of a mystery in the bird world. But a new University in America suggests that the environmental conditions the birds face in their first year may help determine where they breed for the rest of their lives, a factor that could significantly affect the population as climate change makes their winter habitats hotter and drier.
The many ways in which humans use animals . . .
Humans use animals in many different ways, such as having them as pets and testing products on them, but is it worth it and most importantly is it harmful to the animal. I am dividing this section into food, raw materials, entertainment, medical.
Food . . .
Approximately 750, 000, 000 animals and 650, 000 tons of fish are slaughtered each year for food in Britain. The number of fish is not known because they are weighed, and small fishes are thrown back dead into the sea, because it is illegal to land them. Anglers catch an additional number of fish, and an unknown number of birds and rabbits are shot.
Farm animals are stunned by electricity or percussion, and then killed by cutting the blood vessels in the neck, causing exsanguination. The halal and shechita method, used by Moslems and Jews, involves cutting the neck without stunning the animals. Shooting may be at close quarters, e.g. of horses, or from a distance, e.g. birds and rabbits. Fish caught at sea or by angler’s die of asphyxia, when they are taken out of the water; anglers sometimes throw fish back after withdrawing the hooks; the fish may then die of inability to eat, or microbial or fungal infections. Trapping, snaring and hunting are rarely used in Britain for animals which are to be eaten.
Few people who eat meat or fish, or products made from them are aware how the animals are killed. Penetrating captive bolts kill the animals most quickly, and percussion is also effective, if they are stuck before they come round. Electric stunning is probably very painful, because the animals are fully conscious when they are electrocuted. It would be impractical to anaesthetise the animals before electrocuting them, and the procedure of slaughter with carbon dioxide is too slow, although the animals die quite quickly. The challenge to the meat and fish industry is to devise methods of killing animals and fish in more humane ways, but this may not be possible on an industrial scale. It is likely that kinder and less stressful methods would make meat and fish more expensive.
Entertainment . . .
Lots of people grew up taking family trips to the circus, zoo, Marine Park or rodeo. Seeing animals held captive for human amusement was part of life. It was never questioned. While it is assumed that all humans, unless they have committed crime, deserve freedom, we are not used to making that assumption for members of other species. We should ask ourselves why not. What have the animals in a zoo or marine park done to deserve their prison sentence, or the elephants in a circus done to deserve lives spent mostly in chains?
Each of the forms of human entertainment that employ animals have specific inherent cruelties:
Circus animals live in trucks or in chains when not performing tricks in the ring. Most people, seeing tigers jumps through hoops of fire, or elephants stand on their heads, never think about what is behind the scenes. The circus would like us to believe that the animals are trained with positive reinforcement. If that were true then we would see trainers in the ring with bags of treats. Instead they carry whips and sticks with a sharp metal hook on the end. The animals obey in the ring because they remember how those instruments of torture felt during training sessions.
Even at the world's "best" zoos, such as the Isle of Wight zoo, we still see animals living in small cages. Take monkeys for example: Those intelligent fellow primates don't just sleep in that cell, they never get out.
With very little to amuse them, one thing animals in a zoo might cherish are the bonds they form with their cell mates. But zoos swap animals back and forth for breeding programs with no concern for long-term or familiar relationships.
Anyone who considers swimming with captive dolphins might first think of happy dolphin family pods they have seen swimming free off the beach oh holiday. Then imagine them being encircled by boats and nets, some drowning, all in a panic. The survivors are separated from each other and carted off to lucrative swim with dolphin programs.
Rodeo horses and bulls buck to try to release bucking straps, cinched tightly around their abdomens. Cows and horses are often prodded with an electrical "hotshot" while in the chute, to aggravate them, causing intense pain to the animals. That is illegal, but anti rodeo activist Steve Hindi, has footage of the use of an electric prod as a government inspection official watches. After the rodeo, injured animals are carted off to the slaughter plant.
Movie and Television Sets . . .
In addition to all the problems associated with keeping wild animals in captivity, animals used in filming have been mistreated, injured, and some have even been killed on set.
Sled dog racing is something you wouldn’t imagine to be a cruel sport but: Imagine racing your dog for miles and mile, depriving him of sleep to complete the course as quickly possible, mushing though waist-deep water and ice, with the dog losing about 10 pounds through the ordeal. That’s how sports columnists have described the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a gruelling expedition, which kicks off every March. It’s only one of several such races in which dog-sled drivers, compete for lots of money and other prizes. Meanwhile, the dogs, viewed as little more than snowmobiles with fur, are lucky if they finish the race alive or without serious injuries.
What could be more romantic than a carriage ride on a warm summer evening? Tourists from all over the world climb into carriages to see the sights of a new city with little thought for the horses who pull them. During a heat wave in America, in the late 1980s, Whitey, a 9-year-old gelding, collapsed while pulling a carriage. A passing nurse gave Whitey a saline solution, and sympathetic police officers sprayed him with water for two hours. Eventually, Whitey managed to get back on his feet, but another horse, Misty, wasn’t so fortunate. She died from heat exhaustion in the same heat wave.
Even for healthy horses, a carriage ride is not an easy trip. Most countries only have minimal regulations to govern working conditions for carriage horses, and these regulations are rarely enforced!
Greyhound racing began in the UK in 1926 and has been alternately in and out of favour with the paying public. The industry claims that the sport is currently undergoing a recovery in popularity, but according to campaigners, 13 official greyhound stadiums and 27 independent tracks have closed since 1985. The industry’s board estimates that there are 4 million racetrack attendees each year and that £2.9 billion is wagered on and off the course. Greyhound racing undoubtedly is big business, and greyhounds are the ultimate losers.
About 10,000 greyhounds are retired from racing in the UK every year at the age of 4 or 5, either because they fail to make the grade or because their racing days are over. Some will be kept by owners and trainers and will be given a happy retirement, but for many others, the story is very different. Some are rescued by welfare organisations, and suitable homes are found for them. Others will be taken to the vet to be put down, and more will be killed by their owners. Greyhound Rescue quotes, “Favourite methods of killing include battering to death, poisoning, drowning, shooting or simply being left to starve to death in a locked shed.” Others will be turned out and killed on the roads or left to die of starvation. In 2001, the BBC exposed a mass grave at the kennels of a greyhound trainer in Oxfordshire. His former workers claimed the trainer shot dozens of greyhounds with a sawn-off shotgun when they were no longer useful. Just think about it before you go out for a day out at the races, think about what goes on behind the scenes.
Cock-fighting is a centuries old blood sport in which two or more specially bred birds are placed in an enclosure to fight, for the purposes of gambling and entertainment. A cock-fight usually results in the death of one of the birds; sometimes it ends in the death of both. A typical cock-fight can last anywhere from several minutes to more than half an hour.
The birds, even those who do not die, suffer in cock-fights. The birds cannot escape from the fight, regardless of how exhausted or injured they become. Common injuries include punctured lungs, broken bones, and pierced eyes. Such severe injuries occur because the birds' legs are usually fitted with razor-sharp steel blades or with gaffs, which resemble curved ice picks. These artificial spurs are designed to puncture and injure.
Dog fighting is a contest where two specifically bred and conditioned dogs which are trained to fight are placed in a pit to fight each other for the spectator’s entertainment and gambling. Fights average nearly an hour in length but often last more than two hours. Dogfights end when one of the dogs will not or cannot continue.
The injuries inflicted by dog’s dog fighting are often severe, even fatal. The pit bull terriers used in the majority of these fights have been specifically bred and trained for fighting and are unrelenting in their attempts to overcome their opponents. With their extremely powerful jaws, they are able to inflict severe bruising, deep puncture wounds and broken bones. Dogs used in these events often die of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, or infection hours or even days after the fight. Other animals are often sacrificed as well. Some owners train their dogs for fights using smaller animals such as cats, rabbits or small dogs. These "bait" animals are often stolen pets or animals obtained through "free to good home" advertisements.
Medical . . .
Before drugs and medicines can be approved for human use they are often tested on animals, to see if things such as side effects would come, or if they will be effective and treat what thy are suppose to. If these medicines are approved for human use they could be adapted to treat animals in the future if research is undertook to see the biology of the animals. The only problem is, like medical testing there are lots of risks involved with testing the new drugs/ medicines and the animals are very likely to become infected or die.
Lots of countries have legal requirements were all drugs must be tested on animals before they can be approved for human use. The reason for this is because a drug called thalidomide wasn’t tested right and after it had been used on humans it was found that the drug can cause body deformities the babies of mothers who had taken the drug before giving birth during pregnancy.
Also, animals have other medical uses, including producing antibodies for use in vaccines and using genetic engineering to breed animals that can produce drugs for humans to use.
