Animals don't speak anything but fair

Animals can be stern, harsh and even lethal — and with onboard weapons, it’s safe to say most of them are even built for it.

link Sharna Johnson

When they argue it can seem brutal.

When they discipline or correct one another it’s usually enough to make a human cringe and shy away.

And they can kill without compunction.

Hunger and territory beget skirmishes and the taking of life.

Poor behavior prompts severe criticism — of the type involving teeth and claws.

But with rare exceptions, fairness reigns over the animal kingdom.

Even sport can be bloody and seem destructive but underneath the viciousness of it, there is a game a foot and it’s one which will always include a winner, a loser or a draw.

Every action, even the extreme, is an answer, a solution — justified cause and effect.

In fact, random or unprompted acts of violence and cruelty are so far from the norm, they generally serve as an indicator that a creature is ill or diseased.

The concept of fairness among animals isn’t limited to just the violent moments though.

In a 2003 study of capuchin monkeys, researchers discovered the animals have an expectation of fairness tied to a sense of self worth.

Researchers had two monkeys placed within sight of one another perform a task, then presented them with food rewards of different values. While the monkey who received the better reward was content, the monkey who was slighted threw their food back at the researcher and proceeded to screech angrily and shake the bars of its cage.

Repeatedly, researchers encountered the same reaction, regardless of which monkey received the less appealing pay for its work.

The conclusion: Even non-human animals expect equal pay for equal work.

Sure, humans complicate things to such an extent that actions and responses become disproportionate to whatever caused them, but for critters it seems to be quite simple and uncluttered, the most basic arithmetic there is — that of balance and pure this-plus-this-equals-that.

So yes, when you hand a bigger treat to one dog than another, they probably do notice, and, they are likely perplexed at our inability to get the concept of fairness and equality.

It stands to reason that it would be easy for us humans to misunderstand the why and the what of things, thinking that if the dog growls and snaps to get its point across to other dogs, then we must interact just as harshly with them when we are trying to make them understand.

And that may not be completely off base, after all. It is their language, and a language they understand.

But the subtlety oft missed in an attempt to meet them on their level is that communication must always be fair, because anything else is, simply, … unfair.

When taking on the challenge of training the pooch, for instance, it can be completely appropriate to verbally snap at them to let them know they have erred. Not only is it appropriate, letting them know they did the wrong thing clearly and concisely with no room for interpretation is the most fair you can do – at least you are giving them an opportunity to change the behavior.

To give a severe verbal correction then follow up with dragging them angrily at the end of a leash then repeated kicking or hitting, and fairness, along with the message are lost, replaced by cruelty, disproportionate anger and a total communication breakdown.

Fear may cause them to adjust their behavior, but with cruelty being a mostly human language, they certainly don’t understand us when we speak anything but fair

Sharna Johnson is a writer who is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at: [email protected] or on the web at:

www.insearchofponies.blogspot.com