Animals that kill for fun

[theboatcandream]

Bees. Bees kill for fun. I think. I had one sting me once for no apparent reason.He just flew up to me and tried to kill me, but im not severly allergic so i didnt die.

Probably identified you as a threat to its hive.

[theboatcandream]

here is a story about wolves killing hunting dogs in idaho. It goves one a little insight into wolf pack behavior. I am not able to judge the "fun" aspect. It looks like they may eat domestic dogs.

CAUTION!!! GRAPHIC PICS OF WOLF KILL, IF YOU HAVE WEAK STOMACH DON'T LOOK AT BOTTOM OF PAGE, OR READ AT ALL.

http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/?p=787

That's a horrible story, and incredibly tragic. I don't think it was a matter of fun for the wolves though. More likely they saw the dogs as food, or competitors for territory.

[Frankly]

If your dog told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

[Gr8Scott]

The very last line is why, even though we could not see eye to eye any less about hunting, you'll never hear me condemn you for hunting.

Is it because I'm honest about it at least or is there some other reason?

[Gr8Scott]

...ok, I'm not going to get into an argument over who saw what on the Discovery Channel

But why even get so offended over a comment like that? Are people worried about being worse than a tiger, really?



...why try to make a point like this. Even if squirrels ran around driving Cadillacs and smoking cigars, would this be a reason to undermine animal rights?

I promise that I'm not trying to undermine animal rights. I just don't appreciate being told that I'm comparitavely "evil" when compared to animals. If they kill needlessly and still get good PR for it, why can't I?

In reply to NepalNT - I'm not a Vick fan whatsoever. I don't think his punishment was harsh enough. I love animals, but not all equally. I love dogs and cats more than most other animals.

[JB_From_Hell]

Is it because I'm honest about it at least or is there some other reason?

Yup. I can accept a lot of things I'm not down with so long as people are straight forward.

[daemon barbeque]

Humans are self aware, animals are not, that is the difference, it's as simple as that.

It's the same reason children can get away with things adults can't, adult's should know better, kids don't. Humans should know better, animals don't.

When I can have a conversation with a dog, cat, tiger, then we can judge them.

Well said!
The only important point is ,that the juvenile Tigers act much more "wilder" than the Adult ones.
Pets like dogs and cats need to feed their hunting instinct..After eating a whole sheep ,a dog wouldn't kill any other sheep till next week!
I can't see tigers getting a license and gathering with other tigers to have a hunting party!And that's just for fun!

[3'scompany]

I promise that I'm not trying to undermine animal rights. I just don't appreciate being told that I'm comparitavely "evil" when compared to animals. If they kill needlessly and still get good PR for it, why can't I?

The problem here is that no one can definitively state that their killing is needless. As others have noted, it is a very real possibility that these animals are killing to keep their skills sharp or because instinct takes over, both being traits that would aid survival in the long-run. Even if it is the latter of the two scenarios, there is a separation of natural instinct and pleasure. There are also a plethora of other possiblities as to why an animal would kill something with out eating the prey that have nothing to do with 'pleasure'.

I think Mr. JB F. Hell put it best: Neither side of the fence can really be wrong in this debate as neither knows, with substantial certainty, the cognitive processes of animals. But I would add an addendum: IMO you are wrong if you state your position definitively. We can speculate, but because we cannot communicate with animals in a sufficient manner, the fact is that no one knows for sure.

If I had to argue my point of view, I'd say that I'm more inclined to believe that animals don't kill for fun. Most of the time you seen an animal kill or maim another animal, even for reasons other than food, it can be traced back to some explanation dealing with survival in one way or another, at least from my experience. However, I'm not going to say this is definitely the case as, most importantly, we can't proficiently communicate with animals and therefore cannot fully understand their thoughts. As a result we can only speculate as to why they do what they do.

[Gr8Scott]

The problem here is that no one can definitively state that their killing is needless. As others have noted, it is a very real possibility that these animals are killing to keep their skills sharp or because instinct takes over, both being traits that would aid survival in the long-run. Even if it is the latter of the two scenarios, there is a separation of natural instinct and pleasure. There are also a plethora of other possiblities as to why an animal would kill something with out eating the prey that have nothing to do with 'pleasure'.

I think Mr. JB F. Hell put it best: Neither side of the fence can really be wrong in this debate as neither knows, with substantial certainty, the cognitive processes of animals. But I would add an addendum: IMO you are wrong if you state your position definitively. We can speculate, but because we cannot communicate with animals in a sufficient manner, the fact is that no one knows for sure.

If I had to argue my point of view, I'd say that I'm more inclined to believe that animals don't kill for fun. Most of the time you seen an animal kill or maim another animal, even for reasons other than food, it can be traced back to some explanation dealing with survival in one way or another, at least from my experience. However, I'm not going to say this is definitely the case as, most importantly, we can't proficiently communicate with animals and therefore cannot fully understand their thoughts. As a result we can only speculate as to why they do what they do.

True that this is all speculation since actual communication with them is all but impossible with our current technology. That being said, we judge each other without communicating at all most times and I'm quite certain that I'm being judged by some who don't know what motivates me any more than they do the animals that appear to kill needlessly. So the fallacy works both ways?

[bigheadood]

So the fallacy works both ways.

Sheesh....this is still going on?

[MikeS]

We have no more mental capacity to understand animal language right now than other species have to understand ours. That's why we can merely speculate, and until we can ask other species about individuality, we can merely theorize on their level of self-awareness.

Anyway, I watched an interesting show on Discovery HD last evening about rogue elephants in South Africa. The documentary suggested at one point that juvenile bulls were killing rhinos for fun, stating that until recently the two species lived peacefully amongst one another. The show suggested that human intervention to reduce elephant overpopulation by removing juvenile bulls from their herds may be stunting the bulls' social development, and as a result, they kill for fun because they didn't know any better. They were getting very close to suggesting that elephants were capable of having morals.

[Robert Delahunt]

I was listening to a radio talkshow that was discussing the Micheal Vick apology yesterday. I called in to give my opinion about the subject and the host and I got into a brief discussion about the "unspoken contract with pets" and the host (Alan Handleman) said the following...

I interpreted this as a basic putdown to humankind saying that we're worse than animals. I didn't agree with that.

I interrupted him at this point with "tigers kill for fun". He was unaware of that and then I added housecats to the list of animals that kill for fun and cats in general I guess. What other animals out there kill for fun? I'm just curious about how big that "humans are not as good as animals" fallacy is.

We have the ability to pick and choose what we do. However, there are animals that kill for "fun", I guess. The great green hornet from India and Japan (I was watching it on discovery channel) sometimes goes into a weird state where if it finds a bee hive, may start killing bees, and not for food. Chimpanzees also sometimes kill due to "turf wars", etc.

Bleh. Whatever. The point I'm making is that it's a generalization. The norm in the animal kingdom is kill for food, but there are animals (not many) that kill for reasons other than food.

Beyond which, that might've been perpetuated by Jungle Book, among other sources.

[ginormous]

I have no way of judging whether an animal is having what I would call "fun", at least from its' own, animal perspective, so I can't comment on why animals kill.

I can't even tell why "self-aware" humans kill sometimes...

http://www.paducahsun.com/articles/s..._obituari.html

...he was one of my wife's cousins. We said goodbye to him Friday (31 Aug).



/thread