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From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Nov 10, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Wall Street Journal on monkey fairness — 11/10/06

The Friday, November 10, Wall Street Journal covers another one of those studies likely to make laugh those of us who live with animals — the astonishing discovery that other animals have emotions like ours. But what should make us smile with satisfaction and relief, rather than just laughing at the obvious, is that this kind of information is being reported in the Wall Street Journal. It is hard to miss the increasing attention that bastion of capitalism has been giving to animal issues. We can only hope the coverage affects societal attitudes towards animals, and, eventually, the way our species treats them.

Today’s report, by Sharon Begley, is headed, “Animals Seem to Have an Inherent Sense of Fairness and Justice.” (p B 01.)

It describes experiments in which monkeys in adjoining cages pulled in trays with cups of food.

We learn,

“When pulling the tray requires two monkeys’ efforts, but only one cup is filled, the lucky monkey often shares its spoils.”

And we read:

“Animals other than humans are not only sensitive to unfairness, but are driven to rectify it. Philosophers have long argued that this ability underlies much of our human morality.”

The whole article describes various studies and anecdotes. The URL for the piece is online.wsj.com/article/SB116311525774919204.html. but the following link should make it available to non subscribers for seven days: tinyurl.com/yfhz3q.

It presents a great opportunity for letters to the Journal appreciative of the coverage and discussing any aspect of our treatment of other species (perhaps even about holding them captive for psychological experiments).

The Wall Street Journal takes letters at wsj.ltrs [at] wsj.com.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

My thanks to Teresa D’Amico and others for making sure we saw this story.

Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. To discontinue, go to www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited — leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Tagged: animals animal+rights action+alerts dawnwatch animal+emotions animal+sentience monkeys fairness justice