• Sybil@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    all the research I can find indicates there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that non-human animals understand personal mortality, so given the choice, the pig would even understand.

    • Slowy@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I would think the cases of non-human animals committing suicide (mostly cetaceans) would be indicative that at least some of them can comprehend personal mortality on some level. It’s a bit different if an animal doesn’t eat due to stress or whatever and starves to death, I wouldn’t call that suicide. But whales occasionally just drown themselves, that’s pretty hard to rationalize any other way