Article 2: Ted Talks: What animal madness means for us humans

Speaker: Laurel Braitman

Seen 5/11/15

Laurel Braitman has a PhD in History, Anthropology and Science, Technology and
Society from MIT in 2013. Shes studied animal conditions for years and has even published
books on the subject of non-human animal conditions. And now in this article she explains why
these conditions are important for society.
She first got into the subject of animal social problems and other diseases when she
adopted a dog with OCD and wanted to figure out why this was an issue. She found that these
conditions stem from more primal instincts that have over represented themselves. For instance,
if a dog had anxiety, than the instinct to run from danger, the fight or flight response, is unusually
more present than it is in other dogs. She also went on to explain that when an animal has one of
these types of abnormalities, they are more likely to form a friendly relationship with an animal
of a different species. Studies have shown that oxytocin levels tend to increase more when these
animals of different species get together and decrease when they are separated, meaning its not
wishful thinking and that these animals really do find it easier to form bonds with other animals
of different breeds. She finished her presentation by concluding that most anti-psychotic drugs
and anti-depressants can be credited to tests done on animals, as they were not only tested for
toxicity but also behavioral differentially. They then tested the results against humans and found
many of the same outcomes.
The question this article raises with me is do these emotional irregularities mean that the
animal is less domesticated than normal? If it is, could it be a cause of the environment the
animal is placed in? Or is it a biological agitation of being domesticated?

I included this in my portfolio because it shows an emotional standpoint on the survival

of life. Many wild animals only concern is how to survive, but not much thought is given to the
basic survival instinct. This piece shows that even if you domesticate an animal, and take out the
need for acquiring food and shelter, its still born with a strong survival instinct that you can
never really take out of the animal.