No Other Primate Takes Medicine, But That Doesn't Stop Anyone.

So it's my final day of The Summer of Jarod. And as such I'm spending my afternoon watching the first half of the 2nd season of How I Met Your Mother. Granted I did some crunches and push-ups, but that doesn't count for much. The only other exercise I'll likely get today was Tyler and my walk down to Wissahickon Creek this morning.
Anyways...recently a couple friends watched a movie touting the benefits of living a vegan lifestyle. The movie even presents a few freak cases of people that can live normal non-protein-deficient life given the correct mix of expensive and exotic supplements and powders. And I have no problem with that decision. If that's how they want to spend their time and money, that's their call. I like expensive craft beer; they like expensive rice protein powders. Tomato; tomato.
However, one point that got made stuck with me. The remark that humans are the only adult animal that not only drinks milk, but also the milk of another animal. And that furthermore it's wrong. So because we're the only animal on the planet that does something it's wrong. Naturally that leads into all the other things that humans are either the only ones to do or not do.
Medical Sciences. What other animal on the planet can manufacture drugs like antibiotics, NSAIDs, antivirals, etc. What animal can perform life-saving surgeries? I don't think I've ever seen an ape performing a triple bypass, so we should probably give those up.
Cultivation of Crops. As much damage to the environment as we're doing with excessive fertilizer and proprietary seeds, it's still the foundation for our society. Without our ability to cultivate crops to feed our populations, we'd be down millions of people.
Written Language. Even see a jungle cat writing in their diary? Possibly a grizzly bear opening up a newspaper to catch up on current events? And while I have seen birds poop on a crossword puzzle in seemingly methodical fashion, that certainly doesn't count.
Cooking and Food Preservation. I'll admit that all other animals seem to be doing okay without cooking. However, since they have no means of preserving food or changing the nutritional content of their food to a more digestible form, they have to just accept what they can get when they can get it. It's partly tied to medical science, which is what you need when you eat old raw meat. Our expansion across the continent was fueled by our cultivation of crops and means of preservation and cooking of perishable meats and cheeses.
Not Resorting to Cannibalism. I'd wager a guess that most animals on the planet will readily resort to cannibalism given the chance. Monkeys and bears are well documented to do it. The great cats? Yup. Bugs? Constantly. Humans? It's really something we frown upon. There are remote tribes rumored to do it, and evidence that former colonies of humans have done it, but it's not something we accept. Clearly, that's a poor decision on our part as humans.

Alright, I think I've made my point. And I'm really running out of steam and need to refocus on my stories. Doesn't count as the Summer of Jarod if I'm putting in a non-trivial amount of work. And I need to go find some snacks.
The real point is that just because no other animal on earth has figured out a way to collect a nutrient and calorie packed food source does not mean it's wrong. I joked about it on facebook before, but I really do believe that if a monkey could figure out a way to collect milk from another animal they'd do it. Rock-hard starchy unripe fruit vs a delicious glass of lemur milk? That's a rhetorical question.
Mmmmm...lemur milk.
PEACE!!