Lucy Daydreams

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Daydreaming (30/365)
"Daydreaming"
Olympus E-P2 with Zuiko Digital 50mm 1:2
1/50s, f/2.8, ISO 400

Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to our animal friends, such as my Lucy, is frowned upon in the scientific community. That's because it's based on an unprovable assumption, that animals can experience emotions that match our own.

I do believe through personal observation of my Labs and cats, as well as other pets and wild animals, that they experience emotions every bit as sharp and sophisticated as our own. It is the height of species chauvinism to assume they do not. To assume they do not gives us license to kill them indiscriminately; if they're not like us and can't feel like us, then it makes it easier to treat them with indifferent cruelty, without consideration or conscious.

I like my animals and the mysterious ways they live. That they should choose to live with me is perhaps the greatest mystery of all.

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