Do you think animals have feelings?

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Punkrockfan
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28 Mar 2024, 6:35 am

Yep. They can be happy, sad, or angry, at least in my opinion. I have a pug who can get grouchy when I cuddle him. LOL!



DazyDaisy
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28 Mar 2024, 7:19 am

Double Retired wrote:
LOVE :heart:

Quote:
The first person she saw that cat immediately be interested in was a guy who hated cats; perhaps cats have a perverse sense of humor?


I've noticed the same - whenever I have guests that say they don't like cats it seems that my cats are also fascinated with those people and are on a special mission to charm them. They keep staring in them and do their best to be as cute as possible until they finally get guest's heart melted and they start cuddling them.

Quote:
And that cat followed me around like a clingy girlfriend. She couldn't keep her paws off me. She was clearly in love with me...and I reciprocated. We were in love! :heart:

Which annoyed my bride. Her cat had abandoned her for me.


Again, the same here. One of my cats that is really sociable always fall in love with some of my friends whenever they visit us and I have a feeling that if they asked me if they can bring it home and keep it, he wouldn't blink not even once before saying: "Yes, take me home with you!" A real traitor!! But I think it is just a curiousity and that he would want to come back.


Quote:
EMBARRASSMENT :oops:

Those two cats were older cats and were long-hair. That meant a lot of throwing up.

One day while I was at work my bride called me to tell me she had gotten the cats "Lion Cuts" and they were acting embarrassed. She was going to be away from home when I got back from work so she told that when I got home I should not laugh at them.

When I got home both cats were acting very self-conscious and embarrassed.


Oh,ok :), so they can definitely get embarrassed, too! I tried hard if I can recall any of my cats being ever embarrassed and it actually did happen whenever I tied a triangulard folded scarf around his head, like in a Babushka style. He, actually, looked as one of my Dalmatian nonna's and aunts, especially because he's a black cat, which made me laugh while he really looked embarassed. Not very fair of me and not nice, at all, but sometimes I just couldn't resist.


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PhosphorusDecree
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28 Mar 2024, 7:39 am

To me, it makes no sense to say that humans have emotions but all other animals don't. Why would emotions have been invented out of nowhere just for one species? I think emotions are basically the way complex animals decide what to do.


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ToughDiamond
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28 Mar 2024, 5:07 pm

PhosphorusDecree wrote:
To me, it makes no sense to say that humans have emotions but all other animals don't. Why would emotions have been invented out of nowhere just for one species? I think emotions are basically the way complex animals decide what to do.

Strong point IMO. I've long felt that humans are just another species of animal. In fact I suspect animals might feel things more acutely than humans do, because animals don't often have so much intellect going on to overshadow the emotions. It's a shame they can't speak English and tell us, but I think it's almost certain that many species can at least experience anguish, pleasure, and anger.

I guess feelings arise from the complexity of the brain and nervous system, so it may follow that animals with relatively simple neuronal apparatus don't have so much in the way of feelings, and at some point the apparatus might be too simple to support feelings at all. I wish I knew for sure that insects have no feelings, because then it would make the moral choice about killing them easier, and I'm faced with that moral choice quite often when encountering insects that I suspect threaten my health or just bother me.



lostonearth35
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28 Mar 2024, 7:58 pm

I find it depends on how intelligent and complex the animal is. Like cats, dogs, pigs, apes, whales, birds, and even octopi. But insects, worms, fish, and molluscs other than octopi is debatable.



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28 Mar 2024, 10:41 pm

PhosphorusDecree wrote:
To me, it makes no sense to say that humans have emotions but all other animals don't. Why would emotions have been invented out of nowhere just for one species? I think emotions are basically the way complex animals decide what to do.

I agree that to assume humans have some special ability that no other animals have is absurd. I think people made this up because we as a species can be very egotistical and we needed an excuse to put ourselves above everyone else. Just like we needed to put the Earth at the center of the universe, etc.
For anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. It looks at the question of how we can know if an animal is conscious and whether the question even makes sense. Great book.


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Kitty4670
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29 Mar 2024, 2:19 am

When my cat was a kitten, she had nightmares, when she saw me, she started feeling better.



Comet Zed
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29 Mar 2024, 6:03 am

Yes, they do.


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AnonymousAnonymous
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02 Apr 2024, 7:05 pm

Animals have feelings.


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