Animal Suicide

**stormcrow** · 06-14-2010 09:23 AM

Swiss Cows commit Mass Suicide, await Comet #1

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...tzerland.html#

Quote:
Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.

In the space of just three days, 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of metres to rocks below where they were killed instantly.

Swiss mystery: Dozens of cows' bodies litter the valley floor after they mysteriously fell from the alpine cliff many feet above
In each case, local mountain rescue services using a helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger to the local groundwater of pollution.

A police spokesman said: 'There are no large carnivores living in the Alps anymore who would once have disposed of the bodies so they have to be moved.

'We are investigating because cows growing up in the mountains normally can estimate dangers and do not plunge down cliffs.'

According to local reports, there had been violent thunderstorms in the area which may well have spooked the animals.

Cows wandering at high altitude are a common sight across much of the Alps, where farmers let them loose to graze on the green plateaus above the villages.

Cows graze in the picturesque mountains and valleys of Lauterbrunnen, right
Often carrying large bells around their necks, most are dairy cows as the mix of vegetation and grasses at that high altitude are particularly good for milk and for making cheese.

Cows do occasionally fall to their deaths in these Alpine regions although it is rare for so many to fall in one particular place.

There has been speculation in the past that when this does happen it is because a tightly-grouped number have followed each other as they search for more grass.

Most scientists generally believe that animals are incapable of committing suicide.

Even lemmings, which by popular myth throw themselves off cliffs during mating season, do not take their own lives intentionally.

Instead, evolutionary pressures cause them to feel the urge to change habitat at which point they migrate in huge droves.

Sometimes, particularly in Scandinavia, they reach clifftops overlooking an ocean and, driven by the urge to cross a body of water, throw themselves off in order to swim to the other side.

They often die of exhaustion or drown as a result.

The myth came to the public's attention when a Disney wildlife film in the 1950s mocked up the lemming migration to make it look like the animals had committed suicide.

**tommo** · 06-15-2010 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by Jesus of Suburbia

I feel the need to tell you of Lemmings.

Lemmings are a small rodent. Here is a Lemming;
[img]http:........

bla bla bla

Originally Posted by Smuds

Don't know if anyone has reference to cracked.com yet, but there is one part of an article that kind of deals with this subject...

Located near Scotland's charming little village of Milton in the peaceful burgh of Dumbarton, the Overtoun Bridge is a local arch construction where no human beings have ever died in any suspicious circumstances whatsoever over the last few decades.

However, during that span, for reasons we can't begin to possibly understand, hundreds and hundreds of dogs have killed themselves there. It appears that dogs have been plunging off of Overtoun since the early 60s, at a rate of one anim

bla bla bla bla bla

Originally Posted by LRT

Lemming. Suicide. Is. A. Myth.

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

Every time somebody repeats that myth, God kills a lemming.

Thankyou.

Also, as for the free will thing. I believe some animals are just as smart as humans. Dolphins for example would be able to commit suicide I think. But they don't have any reason to. They have basically no problems. Unless they are locked up and tortured.
Dogs I think are as well. Some anyway. The only difference I can see between smart animals and humans is that humans have the most complex language.
This brings us all sorts of problems that other animals don't have because they don't talk. Of course dogs and dolphins both have languages, but they are small compared to ours, especially dog's. So they don't have all these 'human' problems.

If you think about it. Without language, the only experience you can really have is eating, sleeping, fucking, emptying bowels and walking/running/still. That's basically it.
What could make you want to kill yourself?

**hgld1234** · 06-15-2010 10:30 AM

I think animals can commit suicide. But animals don't seem to get mental disorders as often, probably because their brains are less complex (please note, I did not say animals are less intelligent, have no free will, act upon instincts etc etc).

And how many normal humans (ie ones without mental disorders) commit suicide? Probably the tinest amount. You could say that Is a prouduct of our instincts- it probably is.

But remember, we are all animals, yes, with different brains, but still animals. We are not superior, just different.

The illusion of being suprrior is probably only created as other animals can't speak English.

**Saturos** · 06-15-2010 03:01 PM

My dog ran into the middle of the road and got completly decimated by a car.

**tommo** · 06-17-2010 11:13 AM

Yeah mine too Saturos. This dog never left my side. Then all of a sudden it ran in to the middle of a busy road. One can only conclude it wanted to die.

**Xei** · 06-17-2010 08:19 PM

Or it saw a cat..?

**tommo** · 06-18-2010 08:39 AM

When I say it never left my side, I mean it. Well, either mine or my mums side.
The only time it chased a cat was when we told it to lol Which was quite hilarious. This was a smart dog. Crazily smart.
Even if it saw a cat it would not run off to chase it.

**Lucidness** · 08-06-2010 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by Xei

Humans are animals; humans act on instincts.

When dolphins jump into the air or a dog rolls over on its back to be scratched, do you really think this is solely for some kind of evolutionary advantage?

Yes, we do. But not as much as animals. We are then able to rationalize our fears ect.

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