Classism (punnery)

In response to Brandon's post "Dolphins, Apes, Pigs, Whales, and... Parrots!" (2/24/2013):

I would guess that many people usually exclude parrots from the list of highly intelligent creatures because they differ more greatly from humans than do any of the other animals you listed above.  Dolphins, apes, pigs, and whales all belong to the class 'mammalia.'  Parrots, on the other hand, belong to the class 'aves,' or birds.  As such, many people do not consider them when thinking of intelligent creatures, since they are not at all close to a link in the chain of sentient mammals at the top of which are humans.  Indeed, due to their differences from mammals and the common misconception that all birds are unintelligent, many people treat them as though they were fish - decorative pets with no emotional needs and few practical ones.  This could not, of course, be further from the truth; most parrots are highly intelligent and social animals, and depriving them of attention, affection, space, or anything relating to their physical well-being is extremely detrimental to their psychology, and is an unethical practice perhaps comparable to depriving a small child of those same things.

By restricting philosophical discussions of morality to our own class, people may have more success convincing sceptics of the validity of animal consciousness.  Due to the incorrect beliefs many people have about birds, attempting to include parrots in essays on or discussions of animal intelligence might tempt readers/discussers to dismiss an entire argument as obviously batty.  An argument focussed instead on those animals most people agree are intelligent may have much greater impact.  On the other hand, by ignoring parrots, people contribute to the continued ignorance of these birds' intellectual and emotional needs, and may lose out on a valuable source of information, since in many ways (for example, the way in which they use language, specifically names) parrots are more similar to humans than any other intelligent animals.