Do you ever insult your readers? Of course it is not an insult. This is actually an observation. It is a fact. For some reason we have come to use it as an insult.
For some reason? The reason is obvious. We have always seen animals as inferior, if not inferior, then inferior to our kind, as helpless, dirty, dangerous, unacceptable creatures. Out of ignorance, of course. But we are one of the most adolescent members of the Animal Kingdom. So, insects, worms and snails are 400-500 million years old. Fish species, whales, etc… The ancestors of the rhinoceros probably go back another 200-250 million years. Even today it is 25 million years old. The first horse, for example, lived 65 million years ago. In its present form, it has been running on the planet for 5 million years. The dog you think you have the right to brazenly hit him on the head with a shovel is descended from the wolf (Canis Lupus) and carries the knowledge of at least 3.5 million years of history in its genes. The ancestors of the cat (Felis Catus) whose water and food you throw away can be traced back 5-6 million years.
Who the hell are you? Homo sapiens with 250-300 thousand years of history. And in the last 150,000 years, you’ve become more like you are today. But the ancestors of Homo don’t go back much further than 3 million years. And yet that homo sapiens thinks that this planet was built and prepared for them. 4.5 billion! This round piece of sky, which has harbored various forms of life for billions (note I said billions) of years, has been prepared for billions of years for the arrival of homo sapiens.
Let me make an urgent note here so that you don’t think that I am supposedly an animal lover. I am slowly understanding more and more animals. I thought I did. Now I realize that I am just now understanding. In a conversation on Instagram, dear Zeynep Kalaycı defined animal lover as follows. “If you say you love the animal and the animal loves you, you are a true animal lover”. So it seems to me that as a country we are not really classified as animal lovers. Why? Lack of knowledge. That’s why I see myself at the very beginning.
Over the years I have done many stupid things out of ignorance, lack of manners or ignorance. I have been to SeaWorld and applauded the shows with dolphins and whales. “I have two German Shepherds that I could not take care of properly, that I could allocate a small area, that I could not allocate enough time for, that I could not allocate enough time for, and that they thought the life they got used to with the passing years was the only life. Their sin hangs around my neck. I can no longer console myself by saying, “I took care of it, I fed it, I played with it when I had time.” And we have a mocha. We adopted him from a veterinarian at the request of a friend. He’s a member of the family. And then there is Lancelot, our horse, who is perhaps a professor of communication and relationship management in his race. And even though I work with these animals every day, and even spend as much of my day as possible with them or reading about them, I still feel newly enlightened.
We think of animalism as giving water to animals, giving food to animals, cherishing them in photographs. We become great because we take care of those “weirdos”. We own the planet. And they pity them like refugees… No way.
I believe that the basic principle to know about animals is this. We don’t feed them. They feed us! This is very clear. It feeds our ego. It feeds our soul. It repairs our traumas. It makes us feel that we are not alone at home. It makes us feel loved unconditionally when it comes and snuggles and licks us, taken for granted when it obeys us, shown our strength when it cowers when we are angry, taken out our anger when it doesn’t, abandoned when it runs away or becomes an angel. People who keep animals at home are not doing a favor to the animal, or not only to the animal, but to themselves. Those who do not have this opportunity or the chance to experience this pleasure despise animals with a superficial view.
However, those who have the chance to live with animals, to share life, to share streets, to share windowsills, realize that animals are not stupid, brainless, heartless, emotionless. Those who are very close are amazed at what animals can do. They can see how they learn. They may be different from us, they may learn differently, but they can learn, they can improve themselves. And without the expectation of a raise, a promotion, a business class ticket. All they want is a loving relationship. Belonging to a place, to someone. Just like us. Like all animals.
Then we say that the prefrontal cortex is what distinguishes homo sapiens from other creatures, that’s why we talk, that’s why we analyze, that’s why we make devices that change when we touch the screen, that we are superior to them, that we are futuristic and can even design the future… I mean, look around you. Are all the homo sapiens around you like this? So we’re all the same just because we have a prefrontal cortex in our brain? There are developed and undeveloped friends. The one who cuts women on the street with a samurai sword has a brain, but the cat who searches for her kittens in a fire, the dog who doesn’t leave the grave when his life partner dies, does not? Given the opportunity, there are minds that would be much higher if they had other opportunities. Just like animals. Perhaps what we can learn from them is more than what we can teach them…
The first thing to learn is this:
You don’t have dogs, cats, horses, birds. If you are lucky, you can be its person.
