I live near a farm. When I walk by the cattle, they'll be doing one of three things:resting, eating, or staring at me. Wild animals have this problem(including early humans), and all domesticated animals that I have seen have this problem too. It's boredom. Realistically do you think animals enjoy their life?
Animals enjoying life
- Thread starter rainforests1
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Blobbenstein
.......
If an animal's life is how its species has evolved and adapted to, then I think they probably are fairly happy.. Cows are probably quite happy to chew the cud and watch the world go by.
Cerebellion
Smokin' Crow
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Considering that most of the wild lives in a constant state of fear, alertness, and terror, I would say a little laziness is a good trade-off for starvation and/or being dinner themselves.
Domesticated animals who have plenty of room and companionship of their own kind aren't bored; you're judging them by your standards. By their standards, they would think that you're having a sad and restricted life, sitting looking at a computer screen for hours.
Dedalus
Mercurial and fleeting
The cows in my neighborhood all have Ipads and are usually watching Netflix or playing Angry Birds.
I can't think of too many wild animals that live in constant terror and fear. I think many animals would prefer to be wild rather than domesticated, snakes being the obvious one.
If any creature is sitting for hours resting, it would be considered boredom. I'll be the first to admit boredom would become a problem for me if I didn't have books or the internet. Nothing wrong with admitting it.
1. There is no species of snake that is domesticated. There is a difference between domesticated and captive.
2. Most prey animals spend their lives in a state of constant high alert. It's the only way they have a chance of surviving. In domesticated prey species, much of that instinct has been bred out, but some of it is still there. It's why animals watch what's going on around them; their survival depends on staying away from other animals who may kill them, and in the case of predators noticing when dinner might be wandering by.
3. For animals, staying safe and warm, procreating and raising their young, and finding enough food to be able to do such things, takes all their energy. They tend to conserve energy otherwise, because expenditure of energy on useless activity just means that they will need to find even more food. Yong animals play as a way of learning survival skills. Older animals do what is necessary to survive, and not much more, unless there is a surfeit of readily available food.
Clueless Git
Plant powered
There are only three groups of animals that don't live in constant fear and terror, RF:
1. Apex predators.
2. The unpredatable (Elephants and such).
3. Ones whom natural selection failed to equip with a strong aversion to becoming something else's dinner.
Group 3 tends to be found exclusively in the form of fossils and in the extinct species sections of natural history museums.
Blobbenstein
.......
animals, like sheep, might live in a state of alertness, but to live in fear and terror would undermine and animal's mental, and physical health, and be selected out, I would think.
The prarie dog is a great example. A few look out for any danger while the others go on doing what they normally would do. It's not an utopia, but it's certainly an exaggeration to say they're living in a constant state of fear. Even with dogs in countries where they're treated well I can give you examples of many that could have had a much better life as a wolf in the wild than they had as a domesticated pet. Generally speaking domestication and pet ownership has caused problems for animals rather than doing good.
ledboots
Peace
Clueless Git
Plant powered
Longer term flaws count for nothing in natural selection.
The only things that count are those things which give a long enough lifespan to successfully breed and multiple our genes into the pool one generation at a time..
Humans would be a good example. Things that cause us to fall apart in our 50's have not dinted our success as a species. Our success as a species is down soley to things that allow us to breed successfully in our primes.
Clueless Git
Plant powered
And chickens.
Sometimes their little heads fall off.
Would probably happen less though if people would stop experimenting with the resistance of chicken necks to very sharp knives.
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