once thought to knee-jerk reaction, now known to have emotions and have beneficial effects on their owners
you ever crossed his mind that your pet is smart enough to only missing you speak? How your company can do much for his physical and mental health?
Just go to a place early in the morning to see how the owners talk to their dogs, a retiree is welcomed by a flock of pigeons, or a neighbor "mascotera" receives samples from more than affection ten cats.
the past 15 years, scientists around the world established that animals have therapeutic value. In Cambridge, England, discovered that a month after "adopt" a cat or dog owner feels a "significant" reduction in complaints children.
Baker Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia, showed that health benefits are even more important. A study in 6000 patients found that those with pets had lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and lower risk of heart attack.
a decade ago, emotions and cognitive abilities that we often attribute to our pets have caused laughter among the students of animal behavior. But this year, the world's most renowned ethologist met in Hungary to claim, somehow, the popular perception.
Wow! Meow!
"Before, scientists were concerned the animals as machines that only reflexes react to stimuli in their environment. Today we know that your brain is very similar to ours in their internal structures, but in most cases is much smaller. Therefore, emotions and feelings are common in the animal kingdom, although there is a big difference between us and them, "La Nacion said Dr. Vilmos Csanyi, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who attended a special guest at the first Canine Science Forum.
electronically from Budapest, the author of 24 books on animal behavior and more than 200 published papers said: "When an animal is afraid of something, you have a real sense. If a man feels the same, makes the sensation and becomes a large and complex structure (like the idea of \u200b\u200bevil) that produces anxiety. The animals have a very limited imagination, but they have feelings. Pets think in images, we do it in images and ideas. That is the big difference. "
During the meeting in Budapest, over 200 ethologists concluded that dogs, for example, have a sense of good and evil that allows them to "negotiate" in the human social environment. The fact that a dog does not "confuse" the fight game, for example, is a sign that the rules comply pets and expects the same from others, as demonstrated by the biologist Marc Beckoff, University of Colorado, U.S.
Dr Akiko Takaoka, Kyoto University in Japan, went on to say that pets can not only communicate with us through body language and gestures, but can also distinguish characteristics of speech, such as pitch, and even if the voice belongs to a man or a woman.
"The cognitive abilities of animals correspond with their environment and the problems to be solved. Our social environment and interactions with other human beings are more complex, and so we have more sophisticated cognitive abilities," said Csanyi, professor emeritus and founder of the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University.
Unlike humans, he said, most animals have special capabilities to address specific problems and can not make generalizations. At the same time, among animals, there are nuances that differentiate them: "The social understanding of dogs is highly sophisticated because their environment is the human being, "said the author of If dogs could talk -. Feel empathy for us, understand and accept simple rules, we can imitate and may even cooperate with us. "
A special family
Quaini Luciana's family consists of her husband, her son Fede, 2 years and 4 months, and three cats recovered from the street: Pascual, Lint and Manola. Although they are naturally less docile than the dogs with whom she grew up, the three cats in the house enjoy the best reputation. " They are very intelligent; see everything that happens and we are all love, "lists Luciana. "We talk all day, and when we reached the street, greet, and given Fede kisses and tells them everything he did. We also learn with them, because he knows what a mustache, an ear, eye ... When they grow up with animals, children learn not to abuse them and get along better with others. "
According to a study conducted 25 years ago and still widely cited, live with animals not only provides companionship, but also provides security and satisfy the natural human need to have someone to care for and they need us. Some experts believe that pets are more than pills. For example, a Japanese study found that those over 65 who had pets were 30% fewer doctor visits.
Children with mental and physical disabilities are a particularly strong bond with animals. On Wednesday, between 9 and 18, will address the use of Bed equine therapy in the treatment of people with special needs, with the presence of Argentine and foreign specialists.
In Britain, some prisons, inmates now are conducive to birds, fish and even cats. They say it is, for some, the first opportunity to experience giving and receiving affection. A discovery surprising is that some dogs can anticipate epileptic seizures, apparently detecting subtle changes in their owners.
Of the three cats in the house of Luciana, Easter is the most playful, but the most difficult part of the meal. "We have to take to court because we are removing food from the plate," he says. But as you can confirm any owner of a pet, they all have a great social sense: "They can not discriminate-resume-Fede's mother. Do not care if a guy is in a wheelchair or a person is blind." In that sense, it seems, we have overcome.
Hugs,
e mail: paulacillo@psi.uba . ar ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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