XPost: alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian, rec.pets.dogs.health, misc.rural   
   From: boyd@apt0.sao.arizona.edu   
      
   Elmo wrote:   
   > whatthe@fu?.com said (on or about) 07/01/2005 14:31:   
   >   
   >> On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 04:49:10 GMT, Goo wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>   No dog has any sense of anticipation longer than a   
   >>>   couple of seconds.   
   >>   
   >>      Can you back up that absurd sounding claim?   
   >   
   > I don't know about anticipation but it's my experience that dog's have   
   > very little sense of time.  If I walk up to the mailbox and back (less   
   > than 5 minutes) I get the same greeting as I do when I've been away all   
   > day.  So for a dog, anything more than a few minutes is roughly   
   > equivalent to "forever".   
      
   For pet parrots the situation is different.  If you return after a few   
   hours they'll greet you happily.  If you've been gone several days   
   they'll typically bite you, perhaps for having been away so long.  A few   
   hours later they're just as happy to see you as before.   
      
   But what does it matter. The concept of time is an artifact of human   
   civilization.  What animal has any reason to care about time at all?   
   Sure, conditions change with time, but it's only present conditions most   
   animals have any reason to care about.  Sure, some animals seem to   
   prepare for the future, but that doesn't really mean squirrels know that   
   it will snow eight months after nuts are plentiful. It only means the   
   squirrels which did for some reason decide to store more nuts than those   
   which didn't had a better survival rate.   
      
   Ants obviously aren't as intellegent as humans, but there certainly are   
   a lot more of them on this planet.  Does that mean they're more   
   successful and better adapted?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)