Category Archives: Animal Rights

Humans and Gorillas:  The Harambe Tragedy. 

Posted on June 1, 2016 by jeffreymasson

  Harambe, a 17-year-old male Western lowland gorilla (an endangered species with only about 175,000 left in the world), was shot to death on May 28 when a 3 year old boy fell 12 feet (seemingly without injury as he was … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals, Uncategorized | Tagged Cincinnati Zoo, Harambe, Western lowland gorilla | 2 Comments

Ringling Brothers and Elephants

Posted on March 13, 2015 by jeffreymasson

Today I published an opinion piece about this in the New York Daily News.  It has generated a lot of comment.  I would like to know  your opinion.  Here is the link: https://nydn.us/1wAkvGQ People care about elephants, with good reason. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights | 1 Comment

Orcas Who Play with Their Food

Posted on August 29, 2011 by jeffreymasson

You probably know the orca by its other name: the killer whale. This name is old. In 1835, R. Hamilton wrote that the killer whale “…has the character of being exceedingly voracious and warlike. It devours an immense number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals, Vegetarianism and Veganism | Tagged absence of in orca society, apex predators, baby lambs, baby seals, compassion in orcas, culture in orcas, daniel defoe, empathy, enormous brains of orcas, genocide, Howard Garrett, Jewish grandmothers, killer whales, Lyall Watson, Maori elders, murder, Naomi Rose, not eating meat, orca aggression, orcas, orcas and humans, orcas and tyranny, orcas don't kill each other, rape, sentimentality, spindle cells, torture, tyrants, Upanishads, vegan choice, vegetarianism | 5 Comments

Peaceable Kingdom

Posted on July 22, 2011 by jeffreymasson

Some years ago I conducted a fairly ordinary experiment in group living: I introduced a baby rabbit, two baby rats, a kitten, a puppy, and a rooster and a chick to one another at a very early age, and surprise, … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals, Uncategorized | Tagged animal compassion, animal rights, apex predators, benign animal experiments, jeffrey masson, kittens and rabbits as friends, orcas, peaceable kingdom, pet chickens, pet rats, prey species, rabbits, sentimentalism, veganism, violence, walking on the beach with cats, watering holes | 3 Comments

Do Animals Get Depressed?

Posted on May 17, 2011 by jeffreymasson

I re-read William Styron’s 1991 “tale of horror,” Darkness Visible about his deep depression in the 1980s. I could not help thinking, as I was reading, the big cats don’t get depressed… sharks don’t get depressed… elephants don’t get depressed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals, Anti-Psychiatry, Books, Dogs, Uncategorized, Vegetarianism and Veganism | Tagged abnormal behavior in animals, abnormal behavior in zoo animals, anger and depression, animals and depression, animals and suicide, animals in zoos, captive animals, cats and suicide, concentration camps and depression, David Foster Wallace, Depression, diabetes and diet, dogs and suicide, dolphins and suicide, drugs and depression, Flipper, genocide, Jane Goodall, Jonathan Franzen, mental illness, narcissism and depression, natural world, no genocide in the natural world, PTSD, rage and depression, Rick O'Barry, styron, suicide in dolphins, The Cove, veganism, whales and suicide | 8 Comments

Crocs and Us

Posted on April 12, 2011 by jeffreymasson

Crocs and Us . Recently we were warned that there was a great white shark swimming not far from our house on the beach in Auckland.  Nobody entered the ocean for weeks.  If you told me the chances of being … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals | Tagged alpha predator, altruism in animals, altruistic behavior in animals, American alligator, apex predator, compassion in animals, crocodiles, fatal crocodile attacks, gueltas, Mauritania, Nile crocodile, orcas, sacred crocodiles, Saltwater crocodile, supreme predator, young crocodiles distress call | 4 Comments

What distinguishes humans from animals?

Posted on January 10, 2011 by jeffreymasson

For years the myth was of “Man the Hunter.” Gone now, thank god. But in its place do we really need to be “Man the hunted?” That humans have always been prey to larger, better equipped predators like the big … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Animals | Tagged altruism., animal liberators, apex predators, big cats, bystanders, human, hunt, jeffrey masson, jesus ants, killing animals, orcas, war, Wolves | 9 Comments

Dogs and Language

Posted on September 20, 2010 by jeffreymasson

Homo homini lupus is Latin for “man is a wolf to man.”  What is this supposed to mean?  Presumably that wolves kill each other exactly as do men.  Or that wolves kill humans as humans kill humans.  But wolves kill … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Dogs | Tagged Angela Carter, animal impulses, dog eat dog, dogs, Jean Paul Sartre, Joan Dunayer, killing, man is a wolf to man, speciesist language, the dog who couldn't stop loving, wolf at the door, Wolves | 1 Comment

Do we really know anything about intelligence in dogs or humans?

Posted on September 7, 2010 by jeffreymasson

Yesterday I visited a friend whose backyard garden always enchants me: there are doves flying free who come back to their dovecote in the giant Pohutakawa tree; she has two ultra-tame chickens running free (there are no native mammals in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Rights, Books, Dogs | Tagged animal empathy, animal intelligence, coevolution, dogs, the dog who couldn't stop loving | 14 Comments