Brincar com porcos

A nossa preocupação moral para com os animais muda com o crescente desenvolvimento de tecnologia na pecuária? Esta é a questão que o filosofo neerlandês Clemens Driessen aborda no seu projeto de doutoramento a ser concluido este ano. E não só pensa, brinca mesmo com este ideia, como nesta colaboração desenvolvida junto com estudantes de arte e investigadores de bem-estar animal:

Os alunos desenvolvem o seu ponto de vista num blog. O ponto do vista do porco ainda está por explorar. Citamos Marc Bracke, o cientista de bem-estar animal envolvido no projeto:

Humans and pigs have a reputation for being intelligent. Despite this, however, neither humans nor pigs seem to be able exert their cognitive abilities in the best possible ways in their modern environments. Farmed pigs in the European Union are required to have access to ‘enrichment materials’, in order to allow them to perform their (natural) behaviour, to reduce boredom and tail biting, and, hence, to reduce the need for tail docking. This legal requirement has led farmers to provide materials such as a plastic ball or a metal chain with some plastic piping. However, these ‘toys’ for the most part neither resolve societal concerns nor do they appeal to the cognitive abilities of the pigs. To allow for a more interesting development of (human and animal) behaviour, and to learn more about some of the processes involved, a team of designers and researchers joined together to design a game challenging the cognitive abilities of both pigs and humans.