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Deconstructing Slate's "Pepper" Series

Animal Person

For those who didn't read the five-part Slate series " Pepper, the stolen dog who changed American science " by Daniel Engber , I recommend it for the history, but also for the misconceptions and assumptions that you might want to discuss on the Facebook discussion about the series. Part II: Man Cuts Dog. Maybe on paper.

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Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Eight years later, Christian Cooper birding Central Park became a very different kind of media image: the black man falsely accused by a white woman of threatening her life after asking her to leash her dog in the Ramble, an area where unleashed dogs are not allowed. It was the same day George Floyd was killed. I remember that day.

Emotional 223
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Animal Companions

Animal Ethics

Here are three paragraphs from a recent essay by Roger Scruton : As I suggested, science provides authority for this weird morality only when clothed in moral doctrine. Scruton appears to be saying that it’s selfish, or self-indulgent, to live with, love, and provide for dogs, cats, birds, and other animals.

Animal 40
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Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans

10,000 Birds

The single greatest challenge facing any book of science writing is balance. Otherwise, there would be no science writing, everyone would just go straight to the journals. That issue aside, though, this is a fascinating book which will engage not just birders, but most people who have any interest in nature or the science of the mind.

Humane 142
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Selling Birds Short: A Heretical View Of Avian Intelligence

10,000 Birds

And if you look into it enough, it presents a classic case where science can fail us. I believe in science. Science is based on logic and evidence, which I think is a very respectable way to look at the world. But what many people fail to realize, and too often scientists themselves, is that science is elastic.

Emotional 204
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On Letting Your Emotions Rule the Day

Animal Person

However, many of our concerns about modern food production stem from purely emotional concerns, in which we try to overlay our social mores onto sectors where they traditionally haven’t been applied. What's all this about emotion, anyway? Methinks it is Scott who is letting his emotions get the best of him. Let the games begin.

Emotional 100
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That Awkward Moment With Feral Cats and Family

10,000 Birds

I have a dog, cats (domestic and feral), birds raccoons, hawks, owls, coyotes, foxes, bunnies and mice…they all share the yard and the woods. Third: Science can’t trump emotion (wasn’t that the eternal issue between Kirk and Spock), you’re going to have to keep that in mind when talking with pro feral cat people.