The Dying Animal

Bioethical Inquiry (2013) 10:469–478 DOI 10.1007/s11673-013-9480-5 ORIGINAL RESEARCH The Dying Animal Jessica Pierce Received: 5 March 2012 /Accepted: 24 June 2012 /Published online: 3 October 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract The study of animal death is poised to blos- it is easier this way, since the new science challenges som into an exciting new interdisciplinary field—and facile dismissals of animal suffering. But as it is, too one with profound relevance for bioethics. Areas of many points of contact between animals and bioethics interest include the biology and evolution of death- remain unexplored. related behavior in nonhuman animals, as well as hu- One of these points of contact is in the area of death man social, psychological, cultural, and moral attitudes and dying. Ethical issues surrounding human death and toward and practices related to animal death. In this dying stand at the core of bioethics. No bioethics paper, I offer a brief overview of what we know about course or text would be complete without a thorough death-related behavior in animals. I will then sketch exploration of this topic, nor would any well-educated some of the bioethical implications of this emerging bioethicist lack knowledge in this essential area. But field of research. although humans are animals and share with other living creatures the basic biological arc—birth, devel- Keywords Animals . Death . Death-related behavior . opment, denouement, death—we think little about the Grief . Bioethics . Primates . Companion animals . dying of other creatures, even despite the fact that we Killing . Thanatology are so often the precipitating hand. As more and more research delves into death-related behavior in animals—as we realize just how much may be going Bioethics has maintained a studied indifference to an- on in the hearts and minds of our kin at the end of — imals. One of the many disappointments for those of us life the possibilities for bioethics grow increasingly who feel the urgency of animal ethics is that moral compelling. I see animal death as potentially stimulat- discussion of animals has remained tepid and oddly ing for bioethics from a number of angles, three of abstract. One of the strengths of bioethics is that it which I outline below and the last of which I am going remains on the cutting edge ethically by keeping up to focus on in this paper: with scientific advances relevant to the field. 1) Therapeutic possibilities of the human–animal Nevertheless, the rapidly accumulating body of empir- bond, particularly at the end of life. Animals ical science related to animal cognition, emotion, and interacting with dying humans can alter the land- sociality has been essentially ignored, despite its moral scape of human death, as for example in hospice relevance in many areas of bioethical inquiry. Perhaps pet-therapy programs. Animals, ironically, seem able to “humanize” the dying process. Research also suggests that elderly people with pets stay J. Pierce (*) 146 Stone Canyon Dr., Lyons, CO 80540, USA more active and engaged and rate themselves as e-mail: [email protected] happier than their animal-less counterparts. 470 Bioethical Inquiry (2013) 10:469–478 2) Comparative work on euthanasia and palliative another, and that individual animals have their own sedation. The vast majority of companion animals personal quirks of personality, life experience, and so are euthanized when they get old, ill, or disabled. forth. Euthanasia is viewed as a precious gift that we can As ethologists and others who study animals will note, offer our beloved companions and is promoted, interpreting animal behavior is complex, and we need to sometimes aggressively, by veterinarians. Study of be cautious about attributing human emotions, thoughts, animal euthanasia is relevant to the conversation or practices to nonhuman animals. Nevertheless, human about physician-assisted suicide. The use of eutha- language is what we have available to describe the be- nasia within veterinary medicine provides an object haviors we see and is often quite appropriate (Bekoff and lesson for human bioethics: Here is a therapeutic Pierce 2009). Some researchers use scare quotes around discipline with an ethical oath similar in most ways “grief,”“funeral,”“bereavement,” andsoforth;othersdo to the Hippocratic Oath, with years of experience not. In time the scare quotes may drop away as they have, deliberately killing patients to end their suffering. after years of study, for other emotions and behaviors 3) Practical implications for animal welfare. The once thought to be uniquely human, such as empathy and study of death-related behavior in animals—which fairness.1 we might call animal thanatology, if we want to give it a fancy label—invites us to take a deeper Death-Related Behavior in Primates and broader look at animal ethics. And it has the potential to help us improve animal welfare on Primatologists have begun to take an interest in death- many levels. related behavior. In the spring of 2010, a study by James R. Anderson, Alasdair Gillies, and Louise C. Lock of the University of Stirling reported on observations of a small Animal Thanatology: Studying Death Awareness group of captive chimpanzees in Scotland (Anderson, and Death-Related Behavior in Animals Gillies, and Lock 2010). The researchers took video recordings of three chimpanzees reacting to the dying Before talking about ethical issues related to animal of a fourth member of their group, an elderly female death, let’s take a brief look at one facet of “animal named Pansy. The chimpanzees groomed Pansy before thanatology”: whether and in what ways animals might her death. Just moments after Pansy finally died, Chippie be aware of death. New scientific research is challeng- (the male) jumped onto the platform in an aggressive ing the long-held assumption that humans alone think display, leaped into the air, and brought both hands down about death or have an awareness of death. and pounded her torso. After her death, the other chim- Research into animal death is still in its infancy. panzees closely inspected Pansy’s mouth and manipulat- Available data on death-related behaviors in animals is ed her limbs, perhaps testing for signs of life. They piecemeal, and much of what we have in relation to removed bits of straw from her body. Pansy’sdaughter wild, domestic, and companion animals is anecdotal. Rosie stayed with her mother’s body almost continuous- But taken together, the bits and pieces begin to form a ly on the night after she died. Following Pansy’sdeath, fascinating mosaic. A number of different questions all three chimpanzees slept fitfully. For several days arise in relation to animal death: In what ways are animals aware of their own death? In what ways does 1 The case for empathy in nonhuman animals is well-established. an animal watching another animal die understand what See, especially, Preston and de Waal (2002), Bekoff and Pierce is happening? What kinds of behavioral and physiolog- (2009), and de Waal (2009). Whether nonhuman animals have a ical changes occur during the dying process? How sense of fairness is still very much open to question, but evidence should we understand animal grief? For now, I am using that fairness is a broadly evolved strategy, deployed within a “ ” range of animal societies, is beginning to accumulate. Bekoff and death-related behavior as a catch-all, because we Pierce (2009) provided an early discussion of fairness in animals; don’t really know enough yet to offer a more nuanced the journal Social Justice Research recently published two spe- account. I am also using “animal” as a catch-all for cial issues on justice in animal societies, chock full of new nonhuman animals, but it is important to remember that research on justice in primates, canids, cetaceans, birds, and even fish (there were too many papers to fit into one journal issue). On every species is unique, that within species there are the appropriateness of using “human” terms such as “empathy” sometimes significant variations from one group to and “fairness,” see Pierce and Bekoff (2012). Bioethical Inquiry (2013) 10:469–478 471 following Pansy’s death, the others avoided the platform renowned British psychologist John Bowlby described where death had occurred, even though the body had in young human children … the eyes sink deep into since been removed from the enclosure. And for several their sockets, and the individual has an overall weeks they were subdued, lethargic, and ate less than drooping experience, literally letting the head hang” normal. (Lorenz 1991, 251). According to a report by the Anderson and colleagues argue that the group’sre- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, yellow-billed magpies sponses parallel, in striking ways, human responses to react to a death by descending on the carcass and the death of a close relative: pre-death care, inspection hopping around and squawking (Dickinson and Chu of the body for signs of life, an after-death vigil, 2007). Ethologist Marc Bekoff observed “funeral be- cleaning the body, and avoiding the place where death havior” among a group black-billed magpies: “One had occurred. Anderson et al.’s report has obvious lim- approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an itations: It focuses on a tiny group of captive animals, elephant would nose the carcass of another elephant, and we cannot be certain that the observed behaviors and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing,” indicate an awareness of death. Nevertheless, the ac- Bekoff reported. “Next, one of the magpies flew off, count is intriguing and generated a great deal of interest, brought back some grass and laid it by the corpse. including a flurry of research on primate thanatology Another magpie did the same.

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