Do you think animals have feelings?

Answer 1

Joy is an emotion that's shared by many animals and is expressed freely and unambiguously. Dolphins chuckle when they're happy. When Shirley and Jenny, two female elephants, were introduced to each other at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, both got very emotional, roaring loudly, touching one another and remaining in close contact, as if they were old friends - and they were, but no one else realised at the time. It turned out that Shirley and Jenny had lived in the same circus 22 years earlier, when Jenny was just eight years old and Shirley was thirty. Since being reunited, they rarely leave each other's sides and are clearly very happy to be back together.

Then there's anger. In Tezpur, India, a troop of about 100 rhesus monkeys brought traffic to a halt after a baby monkey was hit by a car. The monkeys encircled the infant - who lay in the road, his hind legs crushed - and blocked all traffic. A government official reported that the monkeys were angry, and a local shopkeeper said: "It was very emotional... some of [the monkeys] massaged [the infant's] legs. Finally, they left the scene, carrying the injured baby with them."

Many animals display profound grief at the loss or absence of a close friend or loved one. Jane Goodall, who has studied chimpanzees in the wild for more than 40 years, observed Flint, a young chimpanzee, withdraw from his group, stop feeding and literally die of a broken heart after the death of his mother, Flo. Flint remained for several hours where Flo lay, then struggled on a little further, curled up and never moved again.

Unspoken bond
The expression of emotions in animals raises many interesting and challenging questions to which relatively little detailed scientific research has been devoted. I think most of us love animals because they have feelings, and we're aware of these feelings when we interact with them; we don't tend to form especially close relationships with inanimate objects or even plants. Animal emotions attract us - the unbounded, gleeful joy, the benumbing grief and their zest for life. Learning about animal emotions should also help us learn more about ourselves.

Feeling pain
There is abundant evidence from studies of neurobiology that many animals, including fish, possess pain receptors (nociceptors) and feel pain. There's also evidence that chemicals such as dopamine underlie the emotions of joy and happiness in human and nonhuman animals.

Recent research by Vittorio Gallese and his colleagues at the University of Parma in Italy suggests a neurobiological basis for sharing emotions and empathy. Gallese discovered what he calls mirror neurons in the cerebral cortex of macaques. These neurons fire when a monkey performs an action and also when the monkey observes the same action being performed by another monkey. It's possible that mirror neurons are the neurobiological basis for empathy in a wide range of species.

Empathy
Using neuroimaging techniques on humans, similar patterns of neural activation have been found to occur both when a person observes a facial expression depicting an emotion and when he or she imitates that facial expression. This research, conducted by Laurie Carr and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests a neurobiological underpinning of empathy.

Empathy seems to be hard-wired in the human brain, according to research by neurobiologists Jean Decety and Perrine Ruby at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Lyons. They asked 10 young males to imagine common actions such as peeling a banana while undergoing a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan. The subjects were then asked to think about another person performing the same task. In both situations the PET scan revealed that the part of the brain responsible for voluntary muscle control was active. But when the subjects were imagining someone else peeling a banana, the parietal cortex in the right hemisphere of the brain also lit up. This area of the brain helps us to distinguish ourselves from others. These data suggest that we come to understand another individual's behaviour by imagining them performing the behaviour and then mentally projecting ourselves into the same situation. Whether or not this is the case for nonhuman animals remains to be seen. Similar, non-invasive techniques may reveal the answer.

Answer 2

Ask him if he can scientifically prove his own feelings!!!! And if somehow he comes up with methods, those could also be applied to animals. Of course animals have feelings, I hate it that people just assume that they don't just because they can't express them in words. And physically, they won't express them the same way (e.g. laughing, crying) because they're built differently (e.g. they're given tails, moveable ears). Animals have other ways of expressing happiness or sadness etc. etc. - it's all about body language. There's an easily observed difference between a horse who's happy to be outside, playing in it's paddock, tail held high, ears pointing forward, jumping around, and a horse who's neglected or in pain, which will let it's head hang down, ears to the side or the back, tail cramped. A happy cat will show the same; tail held high, whiskers forward, ears too. An annoyed cat will flick his tail. An angry cat will flatten his ears, puff it's coat etc. A dog won't smile because it's not "built" to smile- a dog will wag his tail instead. Many animals are known to grieve when they lose a close one, not just elephants but cats too. As for pain specifically, you can witness a response when you hurt an animal- and not only that, it will remember too- I just explained to someone that a cat with kidneystones might not ever use the litterbox again, because of the pain it experienced there. Any animal that has ever been hit will duck the next time a hand comes its way- and sometimes for a long time after- likely not because it didn't feel it. Your biology teacher is an idiot.

Answer 3

Absolutely. My dogs wag there tail so hard when I get home from work they about wag their butts right off! When I scold them for something they lie with their heads down sulking like, and sigh real heavy. Oh yes and do not forget the sweet kisses I get all day every day......They feel more than some humans I believe

Answer 4

Of course they do. Haven't you ever heard an animal screem if it was attacked? Or hurt? What about if you catch your dog doing something its not supposed to be doing? Have you never seen the look of a dog whos feelings have been hurt?

Answer 5

Definitely

Answer 6

Yes

Answer 7

I don't think they have feelings the way we have feelings, but I think they do feel. I think they use their instincts more than feelings, like they can "sense" danger, or sense when something is wrong. I have a cat that always seems to know when I'm feeling down. She gives me extra attention and will sit and sleep with me when she normally doesn't.

Answer 8

Yes I think they do, there happy with you, there sad when your ill, or sad, they may not speak or show there feeling to you, but they show you how much tey love you, in there way, simply by being there for you, when you need them, giving you seet kisses in your leg or arm, jumping at you when your home after you left him behind, to show that they missed. :) And cry when you punish them for what they have dome wrong, so I think they do have feelings. What about you, do you think they have feelings?

Answer 9

They definitely do. If I have to tell my dog no he mopes for 15 minutes. When I play with him or come home he is the happiest being in the world!

Answer 10

yes of course I can tell when my Doggie is sad or really happy just say the word RIDE and he will wiggle like the world is about to end lol