Am I An Expert Now?

I have evolved from a newbie to an expert on Twitter. Well, maybe I am not an expert just yet. I only have about one week worth of experience under my belt. However, I am beginning to understand the platform better and what is expected of me.

I found a lot of interesting information on Twitter, but the best has to be about the European Union's hypocrisy about animal rights. Apparently, the European Union identifies animals as sentient creatures, but "over 300 million farmed animals, like hens, quail, rabbits, sows & ducks, are being confined in cages on EU farms each year" (@Act4AnimalsEU).

The Europe Union is deceiving people with their false claims. If they truly believed animals are conscious and have emotion, then these unethical acts would not happen. Animals would instead be handled with care. Humans can not survive without animals, so they should treat them with more appreciation.

Most of the accounts I followed this week were somehow connected to dogs. This is due to the fact that I want to either discuss dog communication or dog friendship in my Literature Review Essay. One of the best accounts I followed was @dogsciencesays. This Twitter account is run by Doctor Amy Wade who is a dog-loving scientist. She tweets and shares the latest information about canine science, but mainly focuses on dog behavior and dog science. Another account I followed that was really helpful was @UNL_CCHIL. This abbreviation stands for UNL Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab. A research group at UN Lincoln runs this twitter account and specifically studies and tweets about dog psychology and dog-human interactions.

I tried to retweet and respond to a variety of tweets in hopes to help my classmates and broaden my horizon about something else other than dogs. One retweet I made was about the cruelty of animal testing. Animals' bodies are built differently than a human's. Therefore, animals can experience completely different effects based on the drug or disease compared to humans. Despite this, animals continued to be harmed. Animals should not be tested on since their lives are at risk due to inhumane actions. Additionally, one response I made was about the Red Wolves becoming extinct due to humans. I find it saddening how these beautiful and magnificent creatures are close to extinction. I believe that humans need to wake up and realize that they will be the cause of wiping more species out, like the Red Wolves, unless they do something about it and focus on animal rights.

Furthermore, the best tweet I made was about dog jealousness. This is because there are some people who do not think dogs are capable of being jealous since it is a complex emotion. They believe that since humans are the "superior" creature that no other animal can experience jealousy as much as humans can. Despite this, dogs actually have the same emotions as a toddler. They can become jealous when they believe another dog possesses their owner's affection. This information did not surprise me since one of my Jack Russel Terriers constantly acts jealous when we give our other dog attention. She ties to squeeze in-between us so all the attention can go to her.

On top of Twitter, I made four blog responses this week. I first replied to Vivian who wrote about her Twitter experience and how octopuses can change colors when they sleep depending on their sleep activity. Andres Moreno was my second response. He wrote about how chickens matter since they are smart creatures that can easily connect the sound of snapping to food. I replied to Jason Young next who argued that dogs are intelligent animals because they can read humans, learn tricks, and communicate effectively with other dogs. Finally, I responded to Kayla Gomez. She explains her process with Twitter and her research about sea life.