I love the science blog The Frontal Cortex. Not only is the author named Jonah, as is my firstborn, but he writes about so many interesting topics that I haven't seen covered anywhere else. I'm especially in love with Jonah Lehrer this week because he raises a philosophical argument that has guided my husband's and my eating for the last decade: is it wrong to eat smart animals?
Jonah muses over this quandry while eating octopus, explaining that researchers have demonstrated that octopi play with toys, use rudimentary tools, have both short and long-term memory and exhibit unique personalities - which makes them at least as intelligent as dogs and cats, if not more so. If we refuse to eat those animals, shouldn't we refuse to eat other smart animals as well?
My husband and I gave up eating pig more than ten years ago, precisely for that reason. Pigs are also very intelligent animals. Research at Penn State in the late 1990s showed that pigs could be taught to use a modified joystick to move a cursor on a video monitor and distinguish between different designs on the screen. They've also been taught, among other things, to push a soccer ball into a goal.
So, that's where we draw the line. Because if we love our dogs and cats for their human qualities - for their cognition and emotion and personality - and these are the reasons why we despise the practice of eating these animals in other cultures, then pigs and yes, octopi, deserve the same respect.
I have to admit, we haven't had many converts to our philosophy - at least, not yet. But it was nice to see the issue raised in a public forum.
