Recent content by AnimuX

If memory serves, this is often evaluated by the similarity of animal brains and nervous systems, or reactions to painful stimuli, to humans. Intelligence in of itself does not determine whether a creature should be subjected to cruel or brutal treatment.

That's just lazy. Fox and Telegraph merely printed a story that was widely reported at the time making reference to the claims of scientists which I have also referred to in my posts. There is not going to be a simple list of creatures with numbers attached indicating higher intelligence that...

More a lack of satisfaction with willful ignorance of presented evidence.

And still no evidence supprting the statement:

Perhaps you will next want to make arbitrary comments concerning your opinion of differences of intelligence between long-finned pilot whales and short-finned pilot whales?

Despite the name, pilot whales, along with killer whales and melon-headed whales, are actually dolphins, members of the taxonomic family Delphinidae.

First, you're asking me to take decades of research and create one specific paper or study which is not possible. Second... http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/05/scientists-dolphins-treated-non-human-persons/ Among the multiple studies...

However, the initial comment was not identifying the potential variation of intelligence from one species of whale or dolphin or porpoise to another. It was a blanket assumption, that 'pilot whales aren't any smarter than pigs', made without any supporting evidence, in order to justify cruel...

I'm not 'claiming' anything. Scientists that study cetaceans have made the claim that cetaceans are the second smartest animals on the planet and in some cases argued that cetaceans should be granted special rights as 'non-human persons' due to the level of intelligence observed and inferred...

I don't think anything concerning animal intelligence is 'decided' because study is ongoing but the accumulation of study on cetaceans indicates they may be indeed smarter than other primates. However, behavioral and anatomical study of cetaceans has led scientists to claim they are indeed more...

Actually, scientists have determined after decades of research that cetaceans are the second smartest creatures on the planet. In fact, some scientists argue that cetaceans should be granted special rights as 'non-human persons' due to their observed intelligence. Also, there are plenty of...

Correct. Toothed whales eat at the same level of the food chain that we do. Except they only eat fish, so all of the mercury, PCBs, and other toxins that build up in fish also bioaccumulate in pilot whales. Way back in 2008 Faroese chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen...

As usual for these sorts of threads, the original post has left out some important information and glazed over the facts. The most serious omission is the fact that Faroese doctors have actually advised people to stop eating pilot whale meat due to contamination from mercury, PCBs and other...