Angry in the Great White North

One of the most remarkable aspects of the human condition is the ability to anthropomorphize, that is, to elevate the non-human to human-like status by assigning human attributes to non-human entities.

We do this most often with animals. People talk to their pets, for instance, to the point of carrying on one-sided conversations.

It isn't logical, but it is human.

It is one of those cases where purely logical behaviour would seem less than human.

Take, for instance, the case of Knut, the baby polar bear at the Berlin Zoo:

When Knut was born in December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves.

He rapidly became the symbol of Berlin Zoo, whose staff bottle-fed him and handed out cuddles in between...[cut off]

Obviously the staff have become enamoured by the cub, and are babying the creature. Logically, of course, this is not a baby, it will not grow up to be a human, and might very well never show gratitude for the chance to live thanks to the effort of the zoo.

At some point, quite possibly soon, instincts will kick in and Knut will have to be separated from human contact. But then polar bears are solitary animals, so this would be quite normal. The human keepers will no doubt be saddened, even though they know this will happen, and that it is natural and healthy for it too happen. That is an emotional reaction, not a logical one.

But logic doesn't play into it. A creature is in danger, and humans help out, because we care, and we think it cares in return, if just for a little while.

Some so-called humans, however, don't care:

At three months old, however, the playful 19lb bundle of fur is at the centre of an impassioned debate over whether he should live or die.

Animal rights activists argue that he should be given a lethal injection rather than brought up suffering the humiliation of being treated as a domestic pet.

Well, not entirely logical. The bear will never feel humiliation. You need a well developed ego for that. Still, the kill-the-cub crowd are generally very clinical in their approach:

"The zoo must kill the bear," said spokesman Frank Albrecht. "Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws."

Here's my solution for the problem. If Albrecht and his species-appropriate friends at the Foundation for Bears are so adamant that the cub must die, they can offer to kill him themselves. And they ought to be confident enough in their belief to do the deed in full view of the public, so that everyone can be convinced of the righteousness of their position.

If, for some reason, human emotion wins over cold logic, and people are shocked and horrified at what they've witnessed, and donations to their foundation and to other wildlife advocacy groups dries up as a result, then so be it.

I'm sure the money will start flowing in again once they've explained how important it is to be species appropriate. Any mixing of different species is a humiliation of the creature in question. Especially the humiliation of domestication.