What Makes Us Human: Our Animals!

Last fall, I wrote an article in regards to the deep human-animal bond that exists.  In fact, our humanity may be based on our interaction with animals:


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What Makes Us Human? Our Animals!

By Erik Fausak, MSLIS, MA, CVT, RLAT

Contemplating a career as a veterinary technician may be more ingrained in our nature as humans than you might think. It was during a recent faculty in-service at the American Veterinary Technician Educators Conference where I attended a lecture presented by Heather Waldis from Charles River Laboratories and the Laboratory Animal Welfare Training Exchange. In this lecture, she points out how much animals have impacted us in our development. Heather Waldis emphasizes the human-animal bond and quotes world-renowned paleoanthropologist, Pat Shipman, who states a unique quality of the human species is our adoption of other species. As a point of fact, Pat Shipman is one of the first scholars to identify the human-animal bond as being a unique quality of humans. Being human is actually more difficult to define and something we take for granted. Understanding what truly makes us unique to other species is subject to fierce debate. Language and abstraction, things thought to be solely the human's domain, is subject to a great deal of scrutiny because we can see these qualities in other species.

I recall the excitement of meeting another paleoanthropologist during graduate school. His name was Ian Tattersall and he just published a book called, Being Human. The most interesting aspect of his research is that despite the fact that modern human origins can be traced back more than 130,000 years ago, there was a rather remarkable event where human creativity had an explosion. The rough date was about 30,000 – 60,000 years ago. Tools used by humans started expanding and diversifying. There is no better representation of this cultural explosion than Chauvet Cave in Pont D'Arc, France. This cave, much like the more popularly known Lascaux (except Chauvet is almost 10,000 years older), is a site of inspired humanity. The walls are lined with abstract representation of many animals, some of which don't exist anymore, and even fantastical portraits worthy of Tolkien can be found within its depths. What's even more striking are those who enjoyed the images within the caves almost 25,000 years ago. Analysis of the footprints within the cave suggest a boy and his rather large dog companion having traveled to this cave, together. This striking image is described by dog anthropologist, Mark Derr. In his book, How the Dog Became the Dog, he draws on these evocative footprints and continues a story of how the dog may have been domesticated, but also how the dog has also been humanity's mentor and guide in the awakening of our special awareness.

Interestingly, there is a great deal of conflict about the origin date of dogs. Part of the debate occurs because dogs and wolves are remarkably similar genetically and physically (even in anesthesia, there is no difference in how it is performed). Due to the possibility and likelihood of dogs and wolves crossbreeding, the evidence becomes even less clear. Another confounding factor is that there does not appear to be one single place dogs were domesticated. Genetic studies have found evidence that dogs may have been domesticated as long ago as 135,000 years ago and some suggest as recently as 15,000 years ago. Both studies have had serious issues in execution. In all likelihood, dogs and humans have formed a bond somewhere between those two time frames. In all likelihood, dogs were there and guided our culturally creative explosion between 30,000 and 60,000 years ago. While geneticists may disagree on dates of origin for dogs, they can agree what separates dogs from wolves, 20 genes. Dogs appear to differ from wolves in two key ways: the ability to digest starches and an increased friendly disposition toward humans. These key differences in genes also seem to coincide with the dawn of agriculture in humans. Dogs weren't the only animals to change genes with the advent of agriculture, humans were too. We do know researchers found a clearly domesticated dog from 33,000 years ago in Altai. Additionally, 31,000 year old dog remains were found in the Czech Republic and now a 36,000 year old dog was found in Belgium. The hard evidence suggests that dogs were already an integral part of our lives during our creative explosion.

If you have been contemplating a career in Veterinary Technology, you are honoring the bond we have shared with animals since the dawn of humanity. As animals that will adopt other animals, we have changed those we have adopted as much as they have changed us. It is our responsibility to honor that bond and help our partners in evolution. If you have been contemplating a career in veterinary technology, you aren't just embracing a promising field and rewarding career, you are embracing your own humanity.

Suggested Readings:

Derr, Mark. How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2011. Print.

Rowley, Thomas. "Wolf+ starchy food= dog." Lab animal 42.3 (2013): 73.

Shipman, Pat. The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human. New York: Norton, 2011. Print.

Tattersall, Ian. Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Print.