Something from the animal kingdom…
Elephants have emotions ‘just like humans’
Elephant conservation should be considered in much the same way humans consider plans for their own health and well-being, an elephant management workshop heard on Tuesday.
Sociality, which is the conservation of social structures and processes, …
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Well, it was controversial when I went to grad school (back in the last century) to attribute human emotions to animals. But it is perfectly clear to me now that what is actually happening is that we humans have animal emotions – perhaps in a more complicated way, but fundamentally similar. This is not NEW idea at all, even among scientists – Darwin’s book on the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals should certainly be cited. What perhaps needs explanation is why so many were so willing to deny the obvious evidence of their senses, and claim that animals had no emotional life, or none that we could reliably observe. What nonsense! and yet people with Ph.D.’s really did make such claims.
As Mark Twain said, “A dog, if you lift him from the gutter and make him prosperous, will not turn against you. That is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.
The claims by certain scientists that animals do not have emotions are ridiculous. Anyone who has ever had a pet dog knows that animals have real emotions that can be compared to our own. Those who work with animals can attest to the fact that most animals have some form of emotional life.
Those who deny this are most likely rationalizing some form of mistreatment of animals.