THE MORALS OF ANIMALS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 May 1912, Page 10

THE MORALS OF ANIMALS

Since the day when the philosopher Descartes pronounced all animals to be unconscious machines without will and without moral sentiments, a great development has taken place in our conceptions with regard to the animal kinddom. With the advent of Darwinism the Cartesian idea received its deathblow, and we were forced to admit that the moral ideas which we so admiral in our own species existed, although in a less developed state, in the higher and even to some extent in the lower, animals. A leading naturalist, Mr Ernest. Thompson Seton, in a recent address delivered in London, brought forward instances with a view to showing that the code of moral commandments recognised by man held good for the whole of creation. He traced the evolution of monogamy among animals, pointing out the immense advantage assured to the young of the monogamist animal, which had two adults to protect it, while the young of the polygamist animal had only one, and that of the weaker sex. The most vigorously monogamic of animals were the grey wolf and the blue fox of Alaska, which absolutely refused to remats if their first niates died, and lived up to the principles with such scrupulous exactitude that a hunter in a report declared: "Until we can break down the high moral standard of the foxes, our profits will be greatly curtailed." Many animals, a hare hunted by a weasel, or a moose by a dog, showed a strong disposition, which was stronger according as the animal was higher in the scale of development, to throw themselves when in dire extremities on the mercy of a "higher power," namely man. Most animals, Mr Seton pointed out. possessed a keen property-sense. Squirrels had their own trees, birds appropriated certain articles, and would fight for their ownership. Dogs in particular showed <i remarkable recognition of property rights, and had a A^ery clear consciousness of tlie sin of trespassing. ■ Mr Seton apparently considers these facts make out a case for the recognition of a, high ethical standard amongst certain animals.