Dogs Sense Cancer, But Are They Moral?

Posted to findingDulcinea by Sarah Amandolare

In studies over the past few years, dogs have displayed an ability to sniff out lung and breast cancers, and are being trained to discern cases of ovarian cancer, according to MSNBC.

The unique canine combination of a highly sophisticated sense of smell and constant human observation seems to have turned some dogs into “skilled diagnosticians,” able to sense human illness “long before we might ourselves,” MSNBC reports.

Most animal behavior experts agree that dogs that sense cancer or other disorders, including epilepsy, are “probably smelling a chemical given off by the body” or picking up on altered human behavior, reports the BBC. In other words, the ability is biochemical, not psychic. This is true even in cases of animals sensing impending death, says U.K. animal behavior expert Jacqueline Pritchard.

 

“There’s little we really know about it but as the body is shutting down, I would hypothesize that the cat is sensing and smelling the organs shutting down,” Pritchard said.

Dogs’ highly sophisticated sense of smell is astounding, but researchers are also buzzing over the possibility that dogs have become more intelligent and gained a sense of what is fair by spending time with humans, a sentiment that would have been dismissed just a decade ago, according to the Daily Telegraph.

A study presented in Budapest, Hungary, at the first Canine Science Forum, supported the idea that dogs have evolved “alongside humans,” and that the process has had “a remarkable effect on dog cognition.”

The suggestion that dogs can sense what is right and wrong defies a 2007 study asserting that the ability to judge fairness was a trait unique to humans, and not evident in chimps. If dogs can evolve to display human behaviors, could other animals be next?