Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
5 hours agoAnimal Minds: Can We Really Know What They Think and Feel?
Challenges in studying animal minds can strengthen scientific understanding and foster a deeper connection with nonhuman species.
If the application of behavioral techniques does not produce large enough effects for practical value, then the application has failed. Practical value is whatever you define as meaningful for your child's life.
Handlers at Dublin Airport have expressed their admiration for the service dogs, noting their remarkable ability to sniff out drugs, tobacco, and cash in mere seconds.
We in the autism science and advocacy community were just appalled at the way he went about selecting members. The current committee has been hijacked by a narrow ideological agenda that does not reflect either the broad autism community or the state of autism science.
The new role was prompted in part by a disturbing case last year involving a dog that had been stabbed by her guardian live on social media. The dog's former guardian was ultimately sentenced to two to seven years in prison, and the dog has since been placed with a new family.
Hibuki, the stuffed animal dog, allows children to project their feelings, helping them to express emotions like sadness and anxiety. The child becomes the caretaker of the dog, which facilitates self-soothing.
She explained that the exercise was to prepare for a real-life scenario, when a jacket falls off a chair and onto a dog. 'You wouldn't want them to get up, make a scene,' Gray said. The recent training class was for student members of a college chapter for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to people with vision impairments.
For decades, people with disabilities have relied on service dogs to help them perform daily tasks like opening doors, turning on lights, or alerting caregivers to emergencies. By some estimates, there are 500,000 service dogs in the U.S., but little attention has been paid to the fact that these dogs have been trained to interact with interfaces that are made for humans.
Developmental disabilities are actually quite common. In the United States, about 1 in 6 children has a developmental disability (CDC, 2024). Intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are a group of neurodevelopmental conditions usually present at birth that affect the trajectory of a person's physical, intellectual, and/or emotional development (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2021). Conditions such as Down Syndrome, Autism, Fragile X, Cerebral Palsy, and others are examples of intellectual or developmental disabilities.
A court in Barcelona has ruled that a worker's absence from her job to take her critically ill dog to be euthanised was justified on humane grounds, overturning her dismissal and highlighting evolving legal recognition of the bond between people and their companion animals. The Social Court No. 25 of Barcelona declared the disciplinary dismissal of a teleoperator improper after she missed several days of work, including one absence specifically to attend to her dog's urgent medical needs.
Countless millions of nonhuman animals (animals) of all sorts are used in a diverse array of laboratory research. Their treatment varies from being unspeakably inhumanely abused to being treated with kindness, depending on the questions at hand and the values and attitudes of the researchers themselves. The lives of these animals truly are hidden, and most people are incredulous when they learn that laboratory rats and mice still are not considered "animals" under the current federal Animal Welfare Act.
Marcus was purpose-bred at the Guide Dogs Centre in Glossodia a small town at the foot of the Blue Mountains, 68km north-west of Sydney. In April 2020, at the start of our most recent global pandemic, when Marcus was eight weeks old, he went to live with puppy raisers Alex and Alison.
At first, it was just something fun ... a way to celebrate her and share her joy with others. To have her on the cover of Modern Dog magazine would be something that I would cherish forever. However, the competition took on a deeper purpose once she learned that donation votes support the nonprofit Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), a group helping animals find homes and thrive.
Remember that moment at the dog park when you see two golden retrievers, with one bouncing around with bright eyes and a glossy coat, and the other just going through the motions with a dull expression despite being perfectly groomed? Both dogs are clearly loved and cared for, but something deeper separates them: It's the difference between a dog that's genuinely flourishing and one that's simply being maintained.