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Animals and Their Attitude to Death

Summary/Abstract: Until recently, received wisdom held that it is a uniquely human privilege not only to be able to encounter reality with the aid of reason and language, but also to live with the awareness of one’s own mortality. The distinction accorded death and the experience of dying for humans results from the fact that human culture is not only in many ways importantly related this tragic experience but issues directly from it. Without the awareness of death there would not be culture and its, precisely, enduring achievements: the existence of culture represents the paradoxical effect of the ‘tanataphobia’ that haunts us. Today, however, more and more evidence has been gathered suggesting that animals also experience death in some way. Changes in their behaviour and mood may be the result of a variety of factors, but it is undeniable that the death of another individual has an effect. Evidence suggests that the effects may be lasting, because the sense of sadness, mourning and even deep depression may the result of that event of death related as it is to emotional and social bonds. Even if their requiem takes the form of yelping and groaning, this does not reduce their ‘mourning’ to a meaningless frown in a purely unreasoned and uninterrupted existence-persistence.

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