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One Response to “Caffeine Addicted Raccoon”  

1. 1 Patrick S. O'Donnell Aug 20th, 2006 at 1:57 pm

   Of course in more rural or farm environments, the intelligence of racoons finds them classified as ‘pests,’ owing to their persistence and cleverness when it comes to satisfying their appetites.

   Still, this is yet more evidence that some non-human animals (chimpanzees, bonobos, dolphins, dogs, cats, horses, elephants…) are close to human animals, at least by some criteria (e.g., capacity to feel pain and suffer, possession of some degree or kind of consciousness, cognitive abilities, etc.). Which of course is not to say that there remain some differences between us and them (ability to use language, etc.).

   Forgive me for exploiting this post/comment to let readers know of three recent books that treat philosophical, ethical and legal questions that arise here:

   Scruton, Roger. Animal Rights and Wrongs. (London: Metro Books/Demos, 3rd ed., 2000).

   Sunstein, Cass R. and Martha Nussbaum, eds. Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

   Taylor, Angus. Animals and Ethics: An Overview of the Philosophical Debate (Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2003).

   If anyone is interested in a substantial bibliography on this subject you can contact me: patrickseamus ‘at’ hotmail.com and I’ll mail a Word doc. with a little less than 500 entries (in English, books and articles).

   Lastly, I must ask: if these were still ‘good,’ why were they in the trash? [I don’t know what ‘espresso capsules’ are, but they sound yummy!]

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