Aug. 15, 2003 — Researchers working in neurobiology and behavioral observation seem to be learning what pet lovers have maintained all along: animals have feelings.

New evidence gathered from actually studying dogs, chimps and other animals, supports pet owners' firm convictions that animals experience fear, jealousy, grief and love.

"Five years ago my colleagues would have thought I was off my rocker," said biologist Marc Bekoff. "But now scientists are finally starting to talk about animal emotions in public. It's like they're coming out of the closet."

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Animals got emotions? No kiddin'??

Like, DUH!

Anyone who has ever had a pet (dog, cat, rodent, parakeet, rock, whatever) knows that animals feel things as much as any human, maybe even more so. My dogs have always been able to tell what mood I'm in and act accordingly. Sad and mopy when I'm in an off mood, and happy when it's time to play. They even get "that look" when they have done something wrong and feel guily about it.


Yay starlyte, thanks for the post!

Thanks starlytle. I thought this was a very interesting article, although I found it vaguely distressing.

Although I have been a vegetarian for years and years I was always paradoxically torn between believing that animals are sentient and believing thet they are merely 'organic machines'. Strangely, I would have somehow prefered them to be the latter, I think. I can cope with cruelty done to 'organic machines' much more than I can cope with cruelty done to something that experiences emotion (by cruelty here I mean the day to day mundane cruelty that people mete out to animals - this is not a vegetarian rallying cry).

However, the fact that these animals experience these emotions does not automatically preclude the possibility that they are in fact 'organic machines'. It could be argued (indeed it is suggested in the article) that they experience these feelings vicariously, rather than possessing those emotions themselves. In that sense the emotion - jealousy, grief, love - is a 'survival' response - a way to get more food, or get more attention, or keep something, or get rid of something, or what have you - the animal did not independently feel the emotion.

I'm thinking aloud here, more than anything else. Not actually having a pet I suppose any comments I make are going to be crippled anyway by lack of 'research'. I'll get myself a dog.

i believe this has more to do with why i am a vegetarian than anything else. ive always known animals have emotions and personalities. i was a greyhound trainer and was responsible for over 60 dogs. i came to see just how individual each one was, often in the most interesting ways. some were shy, some liked to be the center of attention, and others were extremely smart.

we left a radio playing in the kennel when the dogs would sleep, just to keep them company. i would come back to the kennel and the radio would be unplugged. out of curiosity one day, i watched the kennel through a small window in the door: i saw one of the dogs open his crate with his teeth, jump down, run across the kennel and unplug the radio, then run back and jump into his crate, pull the door shut with his mouth and lock himself back inside. that was the day i started thinking animals were much smarter than we give them credit for.

i have also always had a special bond with animals. i get along very well with most kinds of animals, even when they give other people a lot of trouble. i do very well with horses and other animals that need commanding. they find my nature soothing and i am not threatening to them(whereas i have the opposite effect on people). i definitely have some strange effect on animals though because everytime i go to the zoo, the lions and tigers get all stirred up when i get close to them. they immediately stop what they are doing and focus on me. my wife and family have witnessed this and think its strange. i had a siberian tiger charge a glass wall trying to get to me. that was very unusual. it was trying to break the glass to kill me. also, i seem to make the big male lions start roaring directly at me. again, this is strange stuff but it really does happen.

Excellent article and excellent topic starlyte.
As someone who has had pets all of my life, I have always known animals have emotions. It's nice to actually read some science on it

i can always provide proof

I've always believed animals expressed emotion. I grew up around animals all of my life and their personalities are as diverse as their breeds, probably more so. At present I have two cats. They are both very different from one another, but both know how to get me to do what they want! They know when I'm sad and how to comfort me. They know how to tell me when they are hungry or when they want to play. Sometimes my cat Orion will hop in my lap and meow a hello then get down and go back to doing whatever it is she was doing. Trinity on the other hand 'talks' all of the time. She prefers being the center of attention and will go to great lengths to do so. Orion is more calm and reserved. Either way I love them both dearly and don't know what I would do without them.