Can animals be retarded?

[Mixolydian]

Is it possible for animals to be born with mental disabilities? You know, exhibit behavior that is not normal for their kind? What would the interaction be like between such an animal and its peers? Would peers think, "Whoa this dude is messed up!" ?

 

[Drako]

Yes, why couldn't they?

 

[Cappuccino]

y u so mean
poor puppies ;(

 

[Mixolydian]

Yes, why couldn't they?

I dunno. You don't hear much about retarded animals. I don't think I've ever seen an animal that was mentally disabled in any obvious way.

 

[dabuddha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieXwuIxw9r4

 

[xBiffx]

Anything with a brain can have a brain defect. Derp.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

When I met my wife she was living in a house with a roommate who had a cat with palsey that caused it to walk all cattywampus, limbs flailing about, flinging itself sideways and falling over every few steps. Animals definitely get born with birth defects. You don't see it much in the wild because those animals get eaten first.

 

[MisterJackson]

Nature tends to weed out retardation amongst animals, but it does occur. Animals with any deficiency, in the wild, are shunned. If they can't defend or feed themselves, they die. It's natures way of a particular species remaining strong, thus increasing that species chance of survival.

In caveman days, the weaker, or deformed (be it physically or mentally) were left behind so that they didn't dilute the gene pool. If I had a retarded or handicapped child, I would certainly love it and care for him or her, but if you look at it logically, doing so goes against nature.

 

[Anonemous]

^Yep, they get eaten. 'Survival of the fittest'

 

[Soundmanred]

Of course!
Here's a website dedicated to them:
http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=24

 

[TwiceOver]

Have you seen dogs???

 

[BlitzPuppet]

No, only you can. Sorry

 

[Kadarin]

Humanity tends to care for its defective people, whereas they tend not to survive in the wild.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I dunno. You don't hear much about retarded animals. I don't think I've ever seen an animal that was mentally disabled in any obvious way.

If it's obvious, they're put down, I suppose. (The major functions of an animals brain are pretty basic - eat, poop, sleep, soshulize wit hoomins. If one of those was fouled up, it wouldn't last long. Except for the "socialize" part - we like cats that way.)

But I guess the other question is what would constitute a disfunction? I mean, human caretakers will recognize and compensate for most of their pets disabilities without a second thought, and write it off as individual quirks.

I know animals can have emotional issues that work the same way as in humans - we even treat some of them with SSRIs.

 

[vi edit]

Many defects are genetic. As others have mentioned those tend to get weeded out through natural selection. There's no healthcare or disability protections awarded to animals. The ones with these defects get ate or die off and do not reproduce.

As far as actual mental deficeits, I'm no expert but I'm guessing it's really hard to really tell if one is retarded or not. All but the most severely retarded humans still can control basic primal needs such as eating, bodily functions, and mobility. And they can still elicit some emotion. Animals don't tend to go much beyond that short a few tricks. It's hard to really judge if a dog is dumb or "stubborn".

 

[JTsyo]

If an animal if born with severe disabilities, the mother won't even bother to take care of it and will ignore it.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Considering that Humans are animals, I think that answers the question

 

[PowerYoga]

If an animal if born with severe disabilities, the mother won't even bother to take care of it and will ignore it.

yup. Have seen mommy cats dump 2-3 kittens out of the litter. Once I Found 2 of them and took them to a vet; turns out they both had severe disabilities and they died within the week anyway.

 

[PlanetJosh]

This thread will be great for the video gems.

 

[Brigandier]

Turtles are retarded.

 

[chelhxi]

Turtles are retarded.

Only the slow ones.