How about making more than an interesting sidebar out of the mention in international news media that animals fled inland prior to the tsunami? We believe that it is necessary for survival on this planet to do more than comment on the oddities of animals' sixth sense. Animal-human relationships are vital to life on earth. Unfortunately it seems to take disasters of massive proportions to bring the importance of respect for animals to the world's attention.
For years, we and other authors have collected anecdotal evidence that animals are messengers and partners to humans. We have found, published, and disseminated hundreds of true stories about animals warning people of natural, physical, and emotional disasters. These documented experiences demonstrate that, indeed, animals have a sixth sense. Even more amazing, animals consistently, compassionately, and courageously use their awareness to aid humans. Examples from our books include: A normally timid dog risks his life to stand between a toddler and viscous neighborhood dog, withstanding bites but holding his ground until help arrives. A cardiologist confirms that for ten years, two cats served as a woman's pacemakers when they took turns waking her during the night and massaging the chest area above her heart. Wild birds in Florida awaken a sleeping couple with such shrillness that they discover a fire has started on their patio and threatens to burn down their house.
Recent news stories show that dogs are early detectors with a proven track record. The British Medical Journal reported the ability of dogs to sniff out cancerous tumors. The U.S. Epilepsy Institute says that dogs can tell when a person is about to have a seizure. Dogs warn people and steer them to safety so the falling person doesn't get hurt.
After the tsunami, eyewitness accounts attested to the fact that animals offered better early detection cues than any man-made, technological systems. Unlike the horrible tragic human toll, no dead animals were found along the coast of the Indian Ocean.
George Pararas-Carayanni, a scientist who has been involved with Tsunami Research at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics of the University of Hawaii and is former director of UNESCO scientific organizations, says that since 1920, when a 8.5 magnitude earthquake hit China, the Chinese have been studying unusual animal behavior. Before the 1966 quake in Northern China, all the dogs in the village at the quake's epicenter ran from their kennels and survived. (www,drgeorgepc.com/earthquakepredictionchina.html)
In 1974, the Chinese were able to observe animal behavior - snakes prematurely coming out of hibernation, rats suddenly appearing - to accurately predict the Haicheng earthquake of 1975. Chinese and other scientists acknowledge that sharks, catfish, and migrating birds sense electromagnetic changes in the earth. Two Chinese earthquakes have been predicted by paying attention to the accounts of people who reported unusual behavior in cows, horses, mules, dogs, cats, goats, and pigs.
Research conducted by Harvard and Cambridge biochemist, Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., and his colleague, David Jay Brown, has yielded accounts of dogs, cats, horses, emus, chickens, goats, and caged birds becoming severely agitated prior to earthquakes in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. Sheldrake writes in Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, "Some people noticed that just before the earthquakes struck, there was a strange silence as wild birds and crickets stopped singing."
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Sheldrake calls for an animal-based earthquake warning system with a toll-free hotline to receive calls about strange animal behavior. He reports that from 1979 to 1981, when the U.S. Geological Service ran a pilot project with 1,200 volunteer observers from earthquake-sensitive areas of California, the project found that seven of the earthquakes had a statistically significant increase in calls about unusual animal behavior prior to their occurrence. Then, funding for the project was discontinued. Go figure!
Since animals have lived on earth longer than humans, are they genetically designed to know or sense more than humans can? Have we lost innate abilities that used to warn and protect us? Would human lives be saved if people paid more attention to the sentient beings in their homes, backyards, and nature?
The major themes of our books, articles, weekly newsletters, and Website have been twofold: Animals are messengers who are trying to communicate to humans. Animals are our partners on this planet.
We believe that animals and their attempts to alert people to danger would add valuable information to sophisticated scientific systems. Instead of scoffing at the belief that animals have a sixth sense or concluding that people who try to observe and understand animal communications are off-base, maybe it's time to take a look at all we humans might be missing. Instead of viewing animals as property, dumb beasts, or naïve and helpless children, let's give them the respect they are due. Animals don't speak our language, yet when humans start listening for and watching the animals' instinctive cues, the reduction of suffering and destruction will have powerful allies.
While we join our fellow Americans in donating to the relief fund for tsunami victims, we are compelled now to immediately and urgently get out information about the crucial roles animals play in preventing and alleviating human suffering. Countless lives will be saved after the message is finally received.