Hearing a conversation between two students one of which is studying veterinary, I realised how clever nature is giving us something that we all as living creatures have in common - a survival instinct. It is in fact a life instinct.
Their behaviouristic remarks made me feel respect and understanding for suffering animals being at risk of falling prey to their own peers.
She said that if an animal, either a dog or a horse, suffers a physical pain, they do it in seclusion. Why do they choose experiencing pain in separation rather than being in a group, in community untill they recover on their own? The students concluded that they do so for fear of revealing any signs of weakness which might doom them to the strong and healthy group members. When in pain, hurting animals remove themselves from the sight of the powerful and lively for fear of being easily eliminated by the group aiming at survival and descarding anything having flaws and weak.
Their instinct warns them against being killed, abandoned and eaten and against the governing general cruel logic that something that dies saves something else.
The sick animals simply might further cause delay in the chase for food and space or just impede it and this way disable the mechanism of preserving a right pool of genes. In this view, giving a helping hand, volnurability, compassion, empathy, sympathy or even frendship are not beneficial and do not pay off. The purpose is thus not to lose but gain.
What is to be praised, what not? Should our human axiology be applied here?
Despite that nature has more versatile patterns. Swans, dolphins and elephants display human-like emotions of attachment, solidarity and bonds when accompanying themselves untill death and loyally keeping guard at their mates after it.
However, 'this will not be like this with you' for people. Since where animals sense weakness, there is strength, where they sense loss, there is gain, where annihilation, there is death, where is death, there is resurrection and transformed life.
wstecz