Working animal
A working animal is an animal, usually
The history of working animals may predate agriculture as dogs were used by hunter-gatherer ancestors; around the world, millions of animals work in relationship with their owners. Domesticated species are often bred for different uses and conditions, especially horses and working dogs. Working animals are usually raised on farms, though some are still captured from the wild, such as dolphins and some Asian elephants.
People have found uses for a wide variety of abilities in animals, and even
On rare occasions, wild animals are not only tamed, but
Roles and specializations
Transportation
Some animals are used due to sheer physical strength in tasks such as ploughing or logging. Such animals are grouped as a draught or draft animals. Others may be used as
Riding animals or mounts
Riding animals are animals that people use as mounts in order to perform tasks such as traversing across long distances or over rugged terrain,
Certain wild animals have been tamed and used for riding, usually for novelty purposes, including the
Pack animals
Domesticated
Draft animals
An intermediate use is as draft animals, harnessed singly or in teams, to pull sleds, wheeled vehicles or ploughs.
- domestic water buffalo and carabao, pull wagons and ploughs in Southeast Asia and the Philippines.
- Draught or draft horses are commonly used in harness for heavy work. Several breeds of medium-weight horses are used to pull lighter wheeled carts, carriages and buggies when a certain amount of speed or style is desirable.
- Mules are considered tough and strong, with harness capacity dependent on the type of horse mare used to produce the mule foal. Because they are a hybrid animal and usually are infertile, separate breeding programs must also be maintained.
- Ponies and donkeys are often used to pull carts and small wagons. Historically, ponies were commonly used in mining to pull ore carts.
- Dogs are used for pulling light carts or, particularly, sleds (e.g. sled dogssuch as huskies) for both recreation and working purposes.
- Goatsalso can perform light harness work in front of carts.
- Eastern Front.[1] In the twenty-first century, Russian soldiers continue to train with reindeer sleds in winter.[2] In traditional festive legend, Santa Claus's reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky to help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children on Christmas Eve.
- Elephants are used for logging in Southeast Asia.
- Less often, camels and llamas have been trained to harness. According to Juan Ignacio Molina the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen observed the use of chiliquenes (a llama type) by native Mapuches of Mocha Island as plough animals in 1614.[3]
Assorted wild animals have, on occasion, been tamed and trained to harness, including zebras and even moose.
Guard animals
As some domesticated animals display extremely protective or territorial behavior, certain breeds and species have been utilized to guard people and/or property such as homes, public buildings, businesses, crops, livestock and even venues of criminal activity.[4][5] Guard animals can either act as alarms to alert their owners of danger or they can be used to actively scare off and/or even attack encroaching intruders or dangerous animals. Well known examples of guard animals include dogs, geese and llamas.[citation needed]
Powering fixed machinery
Working draught animals may power fixed machinery using a treadmill and have been used throughout history to power a winch to raise water from a well. Turnspit dogs were formerly used to power roasting jacks for roasting meat.
Treatment animals
Working as a form of biological treatment for the environment. Animals such as Asian carps were imported to the U.S. in 1970s to control algae, weed, and parasite growth in aquatic farms, weeds in canal systems, and as one form of sewage treatment.[6]
Pathogens and diseases
Animals can be used to detect the presence of pathogens and patients carrying infectious diseases.
- Dogs[7][8][9][10] (including scent hounds) and bees[11] have been trained to detect COVID-19 infections.
- Dogs have been trained to detect cancer.[12] One study reported ants could be used to detect cancer via urine.[13][14]
- Detection rats such as those trained by APOPO can also be taught to identify diseases, especially pulmonary tuberculosis.[15]
Searching and retrieving
Dogs and pigs, with a better sense of smell than humans, can assist with gathering by finding valuable products, such as truffles (a very expensive subterranean fungus). The French typically use truffle hogs, while Italians mainly use dogs.[citation needed] Monkeys are trained to pick coconuts from palm trees, a job many human workers consider as too dangerous.[16]
Detecting contraband
Interfacing and organization
Assistance animals
- The best-known example is the service dog. Miniature horsesare also occasionally used for this purpose as well.
- Trained dogs and African, Asian, and American capuchin monkeyshave been taught to provide other functions for impaired people, such as opening mail and minor household tasks of the same like.
Herding
- A very close working relationship exists between a stockman or shepherd, a herding dog, and the herd (or mob) of sheep or cattle. Cattle and sheep herders in other parts of the world also use various dog breeds.
- Certain breeds of horses also have an innate "cow sense" that allows them to effectively carry a rider to the right place at the right time to muster (gather or round up) livestock. See stock horse; cutting horse
Police and military
The defensive and offensive capabilities of animals (such as fangs and claws) can be used to protect or to attack humans.
- The sniffer dogs are used to detect explosives contraband and attack dogsare trained to attack on command.
- War elephants were trained for battle in ancient times and are still used for military transport today.
- policework.
- Thar desert.
- Dolphins and sea lions carry markers to attach to naval mines as well as patrolling harbors.
- Dogs can be trained to find landmines.
- Rats, which are lighter and less of a risk to set the mines off, have recently been used more frequently.[15][19]
- Homing pigeons transport material, usually messages on small pieces of paper, by air.
Legal status
In some jurisdictions, certain working animals are afforded greater legal rights than other animals. One such common example is
India law have provision for the in loco parentis for implementing animal welfare laws. Under the India law the non-human entities such as animals, deities, trusts, charitable organizations, corporate, managing bodies, etc. and several other non-human entitles have been given the status of the "legal person" with legal rights and duties, such as to sue and be sued, to own and transfer the property, to pay taxes, etc. In court cases regarding animals, the animals have the status of "legal person" and humans have the legal duty to act as "loco parentis" towards animals welfare like a parent has towards the minor children. In a case of cow-smuggling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court mandated that "entire animal kingdom including avian and aquatic" species has a "distinct legal persona with corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person" and humans are "loco parentis" while laying out the norms for animal welfare, veterinary treatment, fodder and shelter, e.g. animal drawn carriages must not have more than four humans, and load carrying animals must not be loaded beyond the specified limits and those limits must be halved when animals have to carry the load up a slope. A court while deciding the Animal Welfare Board of India vs Nagaraja case in 2014 mandated that animals are also entitled to the fundamental right to freedom[20] enshrined in the Article 21 of Constitution of India i.e. right to life, personal liberty and the right to die with dignity (passive euthanasia). In another case, a court in Uttarakhand state mandated that animals have the same rights as humans.[21]
See also
- Animal rights – Rights belonging to animals
- Animal sentinel – Organisms used to detect risks to humans
- Animals in film and television
- Animals in sport – Sports that involve use of animals
- Biological pest control – Controlling pests using other organisms
- Draft horse – Large horse bred for heavy work
- Drafting dog – Dog bred for a specific type of work
- Cruelty to animals – Negligent or abusive action against non-human animals by humans
- Commercial animal cloning – Commercial cloning of animals
- Donkey rides
- Experiment (horse-powered boat) – Horse-powered boat
- Guard dog – Working dog
- Horse-drawn boat – Canal boat pulled by a horse on a towpath
- Horse-drawn vehicle – Vehicle pulled one or more horses
- Horseboating Society – Society promoting horse-drawn boating.
- Hymenoptera training – Bees or wasps trained to detect dangerous substances
- List of domesticated animals
- Mixed farming – Economic activity
- Pet culture
- Seizure response dog – Assists person during or immediately before or after a seizure
- Working cat – Domestic cat kept primarily for pest control rather than companionship
- Working dog – Dog trained to perform practical tasks
- Working rat
References
- ^ Андрей Зайцев (8 May 2013). Оленьи батальоны на Мурманском рубеже (in Russian). Мурман. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
- ^ "Russian soldiers train in sub-zero temperatures with reindeer". BBC. 4 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
- ^ Juan Bautista Ignacio Molina (1808). The Geographical, Natural and Civil History of Chili. Vol. II. pp. 15 & 16.
- from the original on 2023-03-02. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
- from the original on 2023-03-02. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
- ^ "Asian Carp Overview". National Park Service. 24 June 2019. Archived from the original on 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
- ^ Davis, Nicola (25 September 2020). "'Any breed could do it': dogs might be a Covid tester's best friend". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-01-16. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
- from the original on 2021-02-08. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
- PMID 32703188.
- PMID 33301539.
- ^ Bart Biesemans (6 May 2021). "Bees in the Netherlands trained to detect COVID-19 infections". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2021-06-30. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
- ^ Experimental Biology (8 April 2019). "Study shows dogs can accurately sniff out cancer in blood: Canine cancer detection could lead to new noninvasive, inexpensive ways to detect cancer". ScienceDaily. Archived from the original on 2023-03-23. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "Ants can 'sniff out' cancer in urine, scientists find". Sky News. 25 January 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
- PMID 36695032.
- ^ a b "We train rats to save lives". APOPO. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Dutch organization that raises and trains detection rats for worldwide use. See also "Welcome to HeroRATs headquarters!". HeroRAT. Archived from the original on 2011-05-10.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Nelson, Dean (20 February 2012). "Monkeys to be trained to pick coconuts". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12.
- ^ Jenkins, Austin (22 July 2009). "KPLU: Dogs Used to Sniff Out Cell Phones in NW Prisons". KPLU 88.5. Archived from the original on 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- .
- ^ Maryann Mott (10 February 2004). "Bees, Giant African Rats Used to Sniff Landmines". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ Democratic Politics Class 9. NCERT.[full citation needed]
- ^ Ananya Bhattacharya (7 June 2019). "Birds to holy rivers: A list of everything India considers "legal persons"". Quartz. Archived from the original on 2019-11-09.
- ISBN 1-86252-992-2.
External links
- Working Goats Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Documentary produced by Oregon Field Guide