Saturday, June 16, 2007
Do Hearing People Lack In Common Sense?
Upon viewing pictures of baby dolphin, born to a deaf dolphin, being bottlefed, I asked myself this question: Do hearing people truly lack in common sense?? I interpreted those pictures as audistic attitude towards deaf animals just as is true with deaf people. By all accounts, the new deaf dolphin mother was healthy and able to parent.
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30 comments:
How do you know that this is not a common practice for dolphins born in captivity?
You raised a good point. But, to be honest with you, we don't know why the dolphin calf was bottled-fed. It may not have anything to do with the mother being deaf. She may not have produced enough milk or the dophlin calf being fed by a bottle was for publicity, so people can go ooohhing and aaahhing over that cute dophlin drinking from the bottle. These two pictures pulling the heartstrings of people can bring in a lot of money.
About deaf animals, you are right. Hearing people show appalling audism, automaticallydevaluing the lives of deaf animals just because they cannot hear. Almost ALL feel if the animal is deaf, it's best to put the poor animal to sleep as there are many 'healthy' animals more worthy being rescued. As a former rescuer saving deaf dogs, I find that attitude infuriating and revealing how hearing people really view deaf people and those with physical handicaps.
Hey, deaf human parents are OK but not animals because humans have superior brain functions that allow humans to go past our disabilities in whatever methods necessary while animals only have instinct to follow. Those instincts seemingly depends on fully healthy animal senses to be effective.
Devils advocate
Many deaf dogs have misproven your thoery that animals must possess all 5 senses to take care of their young. Like I said, wild animals may be different but domestic animals?
Like you said, taking care of ones young is instinctual in animals - short of mental illness or retardation, deaf animals can take care of their young on insticnt alone.
MZ
As I seem to understand it, Castaway was not a born-in-capivity dolphin and giving birth to a dolphin in capivity may have had effects on the mother dolphin which affected the newborn? I don't know. One commenter had stated the baby had breathing problems...don't see the connection between breathing and feeding except that to feed, the calf would have to go under to suck on nipple which is on the underside of the mother.
Yes, I brought this up because many hearing people do that to deaf parents, telling us we can 't possibly raise our children.
Jared
Like I told MZ, Castaway is not a captive dolphin - she was a rescued dolphin - a wild dolphin may react differently toward her newborn who were handled by humans in which may have affected the newborn. Who knows.
It really bugs me when people interferes with the natural bonding between the mother animals and their newborns. Let the mothers do what comes naturally to them! Yes, humans do step in when the newborn's health is in danger - which may have been the case with this one.
It is just that it is a common practice of hearing people to "rescue" offsprings of deaf parents that really bugs me. That's how I interpreted those pictures, Jared.
read the article carefully on CNN-clearly, it quoted:
• NEW: Calf dies after developing breathing problems
• Mother dolphin was found stranded off Vero Beach, Florida
• Researchers had set up "chat line" to help calf learn to vocalize
• The mother, named Castaway, is deaf and cannot properly vocalize
and it also quoted from CNN's...
Veterinarians and volunteers had noticed Thursday that the 5-day-old calf's breathing was labored and it was struggling to swim. They stayed through the night nursing it and administering drugs, said Robert Lingenfelser, president of the Marine Mammal Conservancy.
It clearly states that the calf had breathing problems and you said you dont see any connection to it. evidently, it had to do with the calf's breathing problem. he was struggling to swim, but couldn't.
Yet, the commenters had to assume that it had to do with the deaf dolphin for not transmitting her vocailization to her baby? no, it may have to do with the calf's breathing problems-we all dont know its diagnosis yet, but the possible diagnosis is the calf's abnormal development of breathing, who knows..i aint a doctor or vet to make a diagnosis.
Teresa,
Thanks for the detailed information. I sort of figured it had to do with the deteriorating health of the calf that the caretakers intervened to take care of the baby. Yes, I also figured if the calif has trouble breathing outside of water, it would be more difficult to breathe underwater to feed on the milk as dolphins are mammals and breathe air.
So, in this case, it perhaps had nothing to do with the mother dolphin being deaf. However, the suggestion that the deaf mother being unable to vocalize to her calf may cause deteriorating health in the calf has validity.
At this point, we can only speculate.
However, this is more an extension of how hearing people treat deaf animals, especially dogs and cats.
hi tea time
I am very angry hearing is not good qualification for deaf issues. similar the parents murder force CI similar the animals is deaf same murder , I have fight with hearing world. also same deaf not support for example oralism better than ASL.
are you think ?
betty
http://deafmusl.blogspot.com/
Mother dolphin kept coming back to the beach for three times. She cannot survive out there due to the certain sounds that she has to depend on - It is complicated to explain this because of the sounds and underwater. I am waiting to find out what went wrong with the calf. Wondering the calf has a name or not.
I am familiar with quite a few rescue people and these guys are fantastic, dedicated, intelligent providers. Many of them are volunteers, the only compensation being the feedback from the animals themselves. I would trust their motives and common sense with my own animals.
Lantana
I'm not sure what to think about this.
Many animals have to be bottled fed for different reasons. My cousin who lived on the farm, her cow could not feed her calf so we had to bottle feed the calf. Also I believe that the panda in Washington DC was also bottled fed too. So it really depends on the animal and if the mother is unable to feed the baby, then humans need to step in and intervene because I'm sure we cannot fathom seeing a baby animal starve to death.
However, on the other hand, I am a proud owner of a deaf dog, they were going to put him to sleep because he was not fit to be a hunting dog so when the breeder brought the dog to be euthasized, the vet didn't have the heart to put him down so they called the rescue organization and the rescue organization then called my deaf friend and he informed me that there was a deaf dog waiting to be adopted. Today he has been a very good dog, never bit anyone and we are so happy to have him. So there were people out there wanting to save him just like they wanted to save the deaf mother dolphin. They could have put the dolphin to sleep instead. This is how I look at it. Of course there are people who think that these animals need to be put down because of their deafness or whatever.
I kinda think that IF the baby dolphin DID NOT have a breathing problem, it and it's mother would have eventually figured out what to do for them to lead normal lives. For example, the mom's vocalizing wasn't natural...I think, in due time, the mother would have figured this out and adapt to other means of communicating/raising the baby by becoming physically closer, nudging, show by example (unless it's the male's role to teach hunting? who knows?), etc. And when they re-join the pod/herd, it's my understanding that this animal is highly societal and Mommy and Baby would live happily everafter!!
DT
DT, I agree - I think the mother dolphin would figure how to parent her calf - she never knew she needed to vocalize being deaf. She would probably do pretty much similar things we do - using body language, using her snout, flippers, etc.
Once, I was amazed to see a mother dolphin DISCIPLINE her misbehaving calf by using her flipper - she went after the calf, circled it, and hugged her using her flipper and restrained it - swam like that for a few minutes before she released the calf. Very interesting! I think a deaf mother dolphin would do something like that.
Michele,
As a owner of a deaf dog, you know they are capable animals. I have a friend who has a deaf dog that gave birth to a litter. She was found on the streets - taken to a local shelter. Upon finding her pregnant, they were hesitant about putting her down because she was deaf...because my friend adopted several animals there, they pulled her file and asked her if she wanted to adopt the pregnant deaf dog. The deaf dog gave birth to 5 puppies and did a beautiful job of taking care of them. I will ask my friend to post her observations whether there were differences or similarities to deaf/hearing dogs' parenting.
Squ65
They often don't give names to newborn animals for this reason - unpredictability of their survivals. Like you, I am patiently awaiting to hear reports on the nepcrosy on the calf.
Lantana,
Is there any one area that you haven't dipped in? Seems you've been everywhere?
Of course I know they are intelligent and compassionate people. I was involved in two rescues myself - one of a baby harbor seal stranded in a cove, apparently abandoned or orphaned...and another of an ailing brown pelican - wandered into my campsite at the beach and wouldn't budge. Pelicans are wild and it was very unusual it would wander into human space. Both times, I contacted rangers and waited for rescuers to come and do their jobs. I helped ranger herd the pelican out of a corner of the campsite into the open where he put a net on it. As for the stranded baby seal - my sons, some people and I created a human chain because some kids were throwing rocks at it and some were trying to come to it and touch it. People from a local marine rescue group came and took the baby seal. I believe they took it to Newport, OR aquarium since it was at Lincoln City beach that the baby seal was stranded. Newport aquarium was where the killer whale from "Free Willy" was rehabilitated.
Deaf Betty
Yes which is why I said we deaf people have to fight for the rights of deaf animals.
That's good -- it is obvious that you are an animal lover. Here is the link from Marine Mammal Conservency -- they named the deceased baby Wilson. This link is very positive and encouraging to Castaway and her baby.
http://www.marinemammalconservancy.org/rescue_and_rehab_strandings_castaway.html
Devil's Advocate:
There is something phenomenal about dog mothers and cat mothers that human mothers lack thereof. They have a keen sense of detecting in a puppy or a kitten a disability THAT human mothers are unable to do so. When giving birth to puppies or kittens, a dog mother or a mother cat would examine them and, if detecting a disability in one of them, she would kill it and hide it. Also, she would kill a puppy or a kitten that hass been touched by a human being. I do not know about other animals than dogs and cats.
Cy,
I wholeheartedly agree that some hearing parents lack senso comune.
They think that deaf people do not
know how to kiss one anoher, to make love, to get pregnant. "They make love in bed?", they would ask
in disbelief, "How do they sign
"I love you" in the dark? How? How?"
Jean,
Yep, animals are known to kill or neglect newborns with disabilities or weaknesses. Dogs are known to neglect runts which is why many pet owners and breeders hand feed runts. Cats are especially known to kill and eat disabled newborns.
Their instincts are powerful - something we humans lost when we became more and more civilized and thinking animals.
Hello, Cysaid:
Well, like they say, when one asks stupid questions they get stupid answers.
And yes, I have double dipped in many, many life experiences. No one could call me isolated from life.
Lantana
The reason why they exposed dolphin vocalization to the unborn calf was to teach it how to communicate with other dolphins. I think they were planning to release it to the wild. Dolphins are social pack animals who communicate with each other via sonar. The inability to communicate via sonar puts them at a great disadvantage, unable to join a pack of wild dolphins. Not being a part of the group leaves a dophin very vulnerable to predators.
So the rescuers weren't being 'audistic'. They were teaching the calf the survival tools.
But what humans did not learn when becoming "civilized" is how to alleviate prejudice. Whether it is audism projected against the deaf, or the pronouncement of the hearing as being insensitive, uncompassionate cat killers who look down on the deaf.
Compassion and understanding, prejudice and discrimination are problems of the heart and mind, unrelated to physical attributes of hearing ears or skin color.
Audism is not automatic in being hearing, and may even be curable with some understanding and communication.
after hearing different comments ( i meant reading) teri sentelle and i discussed briefly on the way to san diego. i had my medical perspective. she had her cultural perspective. however, the article drew our attention because of the pathological perspective. in the past, most were raised in a pathological way. we fought-now we are raised in a cultural way. from my perspective on the article was- how they wrote the article in a pathological format or style.
good discussion though.
Lantana,
What stupid question were you referring to? I merely commented upon your apparent many adventures and put in the question mark more for "wow,golly" kind of statement. It was not an actual question.
MZ,
Yes, I am aware the essential tool of vocalization in a dolphin pack and that dolphins are pack animals just like many other mammals such as wolves, deer, etc. They all have their own communication systems.
For me, it was more that they did not give the chance for the deaf dolphin to parent her calf - are you thinking that humans can teach vocalization to the baby dolphin? Using pre-recordings of dolphin vocalizations? What I understand is there are "dialects" unique to each pack? So, the rescuers and caretakers may not know which pod these dolphins belong to...if taught "dialect" of a certain pod, one might hope these dolphins might be "adopted" by that pack?
Bill,
Yes, many compassionate, well-meaning hearing people are unintentionally audistic. You're right - with patience and understanding, audism is curable.
Teresa,
Yep - your position seem to lean on medical/pathological view while Teri and I lean more on cultural view.
Your position is accurate information presented by the media - the calf had breathing difficulties and had to be bottlefed - Nobody disputes that.
I wonder if they let the mother bond with the calf and teach the calf how to breathe underwater the natural way, the calf might not have died? Castaway is a wild dolphin who was stranded and rescued - wild dolphins, from what I understand, respond differently to human interaction than captive dolphins. What if early human intervention affected Castaway's bonding with her calf? Some animals reject their newborns who were handled by humans, especially cats. Wonder if true with wild dolphins?? Who knows??
MZ,
Sorry - a dolphin pack is referred to as a pod. Pack is used for wolves and some other mammals - not for dolphins.
I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT ANIMALS WE WISH ADOPT DEAF ANIMALS LIKE CALF AND HORSE THERE CAN BE TRANING FROM BEGINING BABY TEACH SIGN LANGAUGE WE NEED TO MORE CLOSE FOCUS TRANING ANIMALS SIGN LANGAUGE. I HAVE 2 PITBULL DOGS MYSELF AND I TRANING MY DOGS SIGN LANGANGE SIT AND STAY AND BATHROOM AND HUNGRY AND TIME TO EAT THAT WHAT ANIMALS LISTEN OUR MASTER TO TAKE CARE OF FOCUS I WISH I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE BIG FARM CALLED DEAF ANIMALS FARM HOME THAT STAFF CAN TRANING THEM ONE DAY HEARING PEOPLE WILL DROP THEIR JAWS ONE DAY I WILL GET MY OWN LAND THEN I WILL COLLECT DEAF ANIMALS NO MATTER WHAT HUMAN AND ANIMALS ARE SAME AS SMARTEST UNLESS YOU TRANING DO RIGHT THINGS STAY CLOSE ANIMALS IS YOUR FREINDS
Dolphin dialects are easy to figure out. If they knew which area the dolphins are from, say, North Atlantic then they use the North Atlantic dolphin dialect. I'm not sure how many dialects there are but, not much compared to humans.
Cy,
Oh, I have forgotten to tell you something very important about dogs and cats. The only two disabilities that dog mothers and cat mothers CANNOT detect whether puppies or kittens that they give birth are deaf or not. Interesting!
"Do Hearing People Lack In Common Sense"?
There is your answer.
What does your title have to do with Dolphins?
It tells in the latest news flash that the constant eye contact that Castaway needed with her calf prevented him from nursing.
My mother was hearing and she taught me WONDERFUL common sense.
Lantana
Lantana,
The title has to do with hearing people's lack of common sense when it comes to deaf animals and deaf people.
Jean
How interesting. Deafness is often coined as an invisible disability until someone speaks or noises occur when it is noted that the person or animal can't hear.
Anonymous @ 5:22
My dogs also understand my signs for bathroom, eat, stop, bad, sit, snack, stay, walk, car. My Yorkie communicates with me in her own way also - she seems to know I communicate by eyes...she would stare at me when she needs to go pee...when I move, she would take a few steps, look back at me and stare...that's when I know she needs to go outside - then I walk, she walks in front of me and then stops at the back door and turns her head at me again to make sure I followed her there.
Sometimes I accidentally lock out my boxer, Gay also would come to me, give me the customary stare - I would think maybe she needs to pee and open the door only to find Lexi standing there - once Lexi comes in, Gay turns away from the back door. She is only telling me Lexi is locked out. LOL. She also tells me the water bowl is empty by picking up the bowl with her teeth and brings it to me. Intelligent dog. She's almost 15 now. I will sure miss her very much when time comes for her to go.
C
Yes - there are certain numbers of dialects that humans have identified so far, but have they identified them all - that is unknown. They can only identify dialects of captive dolphins and those they are studying out in the wild...just how many pods are out there, we don't know. We don't know if it is based on specific part of the ocean, the species or what?? Combination of both? There is still a lot to learn about them.
Deaf Tea Time:
Raychelle and I of DeafAnimalRow.Blogspot.com thank you for bringing up this important topic, which elicited many good comments from some others. Sorry I wasn't able to participate as my internet was down over the weekend :(
We along with other deaf members are working on something bigger for deaf animals and mammals nationwide. If you or anyone else are interested to join, let us know.
Katherine of Deaf Animal Row
You've piqued my curiosity...What bigger plans do you have in the works? I might be interested.
I almost adopted a deaf white boxer named Mo - I made the mistake of writting down that I had to find my former Chesapeake Bay Labrador a new home when my family had to move to Oregon where I was enrolled in a graduate program for teacher preparation for the deaf - we moved into an apartment with no yard. Canyon was an outdoor dog and we found him a nice home with kids (he adored children)and a big backyard. But the rescue organization deny any application who has history of re-homing a pet. Disheartened, my husband and I went to a local shelter and adopted Lexi, a hearing white boxer, pictured under my Canine Children on the sidebar.
From the majority of this discussion, it seems as though people lack common sense, be they hearing impaired or not.
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