The idea that we’re a species-centered species, i.e. anthropocentric, isn’t a trait that make us humans unique. Not in that members of other species feel some inherent need to relate to us as if we were the center of their worlds, but rather that they tend to perceive their own needs as their top priority too. Where problems arise is when a conflict occurs between the fulfillment of human and animal needs. The typical (anthropocentric) human response if that it’s the animal’s responsibility to sacrifice his/her needs under these circumstances. If the animal doesn’t want to or can’t for some reason, we see this as a “problem.” How personally we take this is inversely proportional to our knowledge of the animal’s normal behavior and needs: the less we know, the more personally we take any animal displays that conflict with our own.
Most of us are familiar with the old saw, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” I used the addition of a puppy or dog to our homes as the primary example in this podcast because, of all the domestic species, the domestic dog is the one with which most people are the most familiar…
So familiar that we may automatically assume we know everything about them we need to know.
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