[Theo]

Before man evolved the capacity for the sophisticated reasoning that we possess today, we were not able to distinguish right from wrong or good deeds from bad

Why do people take their dogs to obedience school? If you've ever had a dog, you'd know that they sometimes reveal that they know right from wrong. Not in an anthropomorphic way, but in a real way. Other creatures know right and wrong. It is not unique to homosapiens.

[spinestein]

[Other creatures know right and wrong. It is not unique to homosapiens.]

In your example, you said you can take a dog to obedience school to teach it to behave properly. This is true, and there are many animals capable of this behavior, but I should have been more specific in my original comment when I said:

[Before man evolved the capacity for the sophisticated reasoning that we possess today, we were not able to distinguish right from wrong or good deeds from bad]

I meant the ability to know WHY a deed is good or bad. If we were to go on a FR thread about a homeowner who shot and killed an invader, there would be all sorts of commentary about the ethics and morality of "justified killing" and "self deference" and the criminality of breaking into someone else's home to steal from or assault innocent people. No one can get inside the heads of animals to know for sure, but I don't think there are any animals who have the mental capacity for this kind of thought that humans typically display.

As an aside, if we were to assume dogs were generally capable of knowing right from wrong, then we would have to grant that they have inherent rights similar to our own, and they they could be held criminally accountable for their actions when they break the law. I think this is also applicable to children who are not granted the same rights as adults until society decides that we reach a certain age (somewhat arbitrarily) where we're expected to have learned not just how to behave, but why to behave that way.