Photo: Daily Mail online

It was with a sense of awe that I heard the news last week that Japanese scientists are breeding monkeys that glow under flourescent light. The aim, apparently, is to chock 'em full of nasty human diseases, so we can see what is going on and help find cures for us humans so we can all live until we are 150 - YIPPEE!

From what I can gather, the only real ethical concern raised is about how close this brings us to creating genetically-engineered human babies. Bring it on, I say. The sooner we can create humanoids that don't need food, water, shelter or the latest pair of Nikes, the sooner we can stop destroying the animals and plants and ecosystem that we are currently slowly choking to death. Unless, of course, swine flu gets us first.

In this, the 150th anniversary year of Darwin's The Origin of the Species, it is endlessly fasinating to see how we perceive animals today. They have clearly always played a role in our lives and stories. Eva Hornung has recently written a novel called Dog Boy, about an abandoned Russian child, who is brought up by a pack of dogs - which recalls the classic Roman mythology of Romulus and Remus. George Orwell's Animal Farm, gave human characteristics to a barn full of animals - perhaps subconsciously enhancing our fear of swine (a much nastier word than 'pigs' don't you think!).

The recent YouTube phenomenon-cum-book, A Lion Called Christian, about a couple of blokes who bought a lion cub from Harrods in the 60s before taking him to Africa for release into the wild, is just the kind of disturbing schmultz that we continue to drool over today - creating animal beauty parlours and dressing them in Chanel. But there is also some interesting scientific and philosphical work being done.

Peter Singer is probably the most well-known exponent of animal ethics and he has written a foreword to a new book by Paola Cavalieri, The Death of the Animal. It is a Platonic-style dialogue, between two characters, debating the position of human superiority over animals, and follows with wider philosophical contributions from the likes of J.M. Coetzee and Harlan B. Miller. Singer, himself, has also written a follow-up to an earlier book, In Defense of Animals: the Second Wave.

Wild Justice, by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce investigates cooperation, empathy and justice amongst animal species and the moral lives of animals. There is also a new book by Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation, called Animals Make Us Human and the memoir of cognitive scientist Irene Pepperberg, Alex & Me, about her experiences teaching an African gray parrot skills formerly considered impossible for a mere bird.

What all this means, I'm not entirely sure, teaching animals new tricks hardly seems to be where we need to go. But perhaps it will lead to a better place in our relationship with the natural world and the other species who inhabit it. Alternatively, we can produce a new species of humans that can go it alone...'cause it doesn't look like the pig flu will get us after all.