FW: FW: Phuket zoo cruelty

[Guest guest]

> Most circuses long ago replaced beatings with electroshock,

you must have seen the scars of the electroshocks on the tigers in the ARC at

Vizag.

 

> and I personally wouldn't mind if both circuses and electroshock were

> consigned to history, yesterday, but neither beatings nor

> electroshock were ever used much for the purpose " of coercing wild

> animals to perform. "

I wish I could believe that!

 

> The purpose of the mayhem was & is, where still practiced, to

> instill general recognition of the trainer as the dominant

> animal--basically for the same reasons than police states use beatings

> and electroshock on human dissidents.

Yes.

 

> The theory that the trainer has to be the dominant animal is most

> commonly taught these days through the largely discredited but still

> widely practiced William Koehler style of dog training.

>

> This is no longer believed to be necessary by trainers who came of

> age after the rise of popularity of operant conditioning

Maybe in enlightened portions of developed countries but still not in most

places.

 

> Operant conditioning through positive reinforcement began to

displace

> the Koehler method in dog training in the 1970s, and very soon crossed

> over into other forms of animal training, not least because

> understanding it enabled many more people to become effective

> trainers, much more rapidly than the long apprenticeships typically

> required of trainers in past generations.

Dogs are fundamentally different in that they are pack animals and

programmed to please and they readily come to regard humans as members of

the pack.

 

> What happens if an animal is punished for repeatedly choosing wrong

> behaviors is learn that nothing seems to be the right choice.

> Eventually that animal will give up trying, and will never learn any

> tricks at all.

I don't think anyone is claiming that reward training is not used by these

bastards. They train by carrot and stick. Plenty of stick first then make them

hungry and then give them rewards for learning intricate steps.

 

John.