A dog’s life is a dog’s life

university-of-canterbury

Fri Jul 20 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

A dog’s life is a dog’s life

Friday, 20 July 2007, 5:29 pm
Press Release: University of Canterbury

20 July 2007

The popular perception that life for most animals is a continuous grim struggle for survival has been debunked by international animal behaviour researcher Dr Jonathan Balcombe.

He says, like humans, animals are able to feel pleasure. Creatures from birds to baboons feel good thanks to food, play, sex, comfort, anticipation, aesthetics and more.

Dr Balcombe is the author of Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, the first book for lay-readers to present new evidence that animals — like humans — enjoy themselves.

Dr Balcombe, a research scientist from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington DC, will be in Christchurch next week to give a public lecture on the evidence supporting his claims.

Combining elegant argument and amusing anecdotes, Dr Balcombe will outline how the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ethical ramifications for both science and society.

Dr Balcombe studied biology at York University (Toronto) and Carleton University (Ottawa) before obtaining his doctorate in ethology (animal behaviour) from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). In addition to published papers on the behavioural ecology of bats, birds, and turtles, he has written many scholarly and lay articles on animal use in education and research.

Dr Balcombe is being hosted during his visit to Christchurch by the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury. The centre was launched earlier this year to bring together scholars from the humanities and social sciences whose research is concerned with the conceptual and material treatment of nonhuman animals in culture, society and history. Dr Balcombe is an international associate of the centre.

Dr Balcombe will present his public lecture on Wednesday 25 July in the A4 lecture theatre, University of Canterbury, from 4.10 to 5.30pm.

ENDS

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