RE: Elephants
There's a lot of speculation here-much of it based upon emotion ("I also don’t know if they are good to eat. And I think there is a possibility that they have a level of consciousness that they might have developed a conscience. The funeral rights, and some of their other behavior indicate to me that this is a real possibility"). If I teach a parrot torepeat words,does it have a higher level of consciousness? Could it defend me in a court of law?Perhaps it's merely repeat/learned behavior? I would love to see an elephant save its money, deposit that moneyin a bank account for the future, jump on a plane, fly to the US, and hunt me. Then I would agree. If you don't want to play, stay on the porch. Let the folks with all the facts manage things.
Salukipv1 and Furgitter...good posts.