“ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by WolvesOfTheSeas » Thu May 03, 2012 7:23 pm

Yes animals have feeling when they getting abuse or hurt-ed by a person or a hunter killing animals etc so ya animals have feeling because intersect I mean bugs

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by Silverfang88 » Sat Jun 01, 2013 4:22 pm

Of course animals have feelings. An elephant family-member dies. The rest of the elephants crowd around the dead elephant and weep. All animals feel love for there pups. A gorilla's son dies. She holds on to the carcass for a week.

The real question is, do plants have feelings?
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by ironhide101 » Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:43 pm

If animals didn't have feelings your dog wouldn't be known as your best friend. A cheetah is killed by a lion. The family sits and waits, mourning their lost family family member.

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by Grace505 » Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:24 pm

You're forgetting that humans are actually animals too. And we have feelings, don't we?
Silverfang88 wrote: The real question is, do plants have feelings?
I think they do. I mean if they have feelings, they certainly don't express them in any way like the rest of us does and maybe they're emotions aren't the same us ours. Maybe they don't even have the same emotions we do. Who knows for sure :D
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by howl-ite » Sat Apr 26, 2014 7:22 pm

  • Of course they do, just probably not the same extent as a humans.
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by alethe » Sun May 11, 2014 4:25 pm

Of course they do! Anything with a mind is capable of emotion. But they just express it differently.


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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by laika_wolf » Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:33 pm

I think that all animals have feelings and are aware in that way, but I think the question is more "do animals have feelings like humans?".
One fascinating thing is that dolphins and whales that live in pods are extraordinarily emotional, more so than humans! They have a higher count of spindle cells and enlarged limbic lobes in their brains. Cool, huh? :D
ironhide101 wrote:If animals didn't have feelings your dog wouldn't be known as your best friend.
True, but do they see us as a best friend or a pack member? Sure, we might love an animal, but do they really love us back?
This is a really interesting topic. Thanks, Croix!
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by firedog6 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:43 pm

Surely, they do love us back. They obviously have feelings, like river6 said, they just express it a bit differently, that's all. And most pets also love us back! All you have to do is love them first, and they'll give you a lifetime of happiness. They do have feelings.

I once actually saw true footage of a herd of buffalo. Their fellow herd member had died, and all that was left what his head and his skeleton, however, the current herd members crowed around the poor dead buffalo and licked him in attempt to make him feel better. They did this for days. <3 What more proof could you ask for?
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by laika_wolf » Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:32 pm

I'm not arguing against the fact that animals of the same species feel affection for each other. I'm just bringing up the point that some others make, which is that pets may or may not feel emotions towards their owners the way we feel love for our pets, but MRI's of dogs' brains shows that parts of the dogs' brains that show happiness light up when they're shown food or familiar humans. I wonder if this has to do with the fact that dogs have been domesticated for so long and if it would work with other pets or wild animals.
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by duskypack » Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:57 pm

My dog (yes, overused,) seemingly expresses loneliness, joy, and sometimes she seems to purposefully pee in the house if we make a mistake, right after she urinates outside. Affection is easily seen between dog and master, and certainly between wolves. I feel that non-domesticated animals seem to feel a lot of emotion for themselves and each other, and domesticated animals, if intelligent enough, also seem to display emotion, even love and anger to humans. I believe that animals shouldn't be overly humanized when it comes to emotion, but the more intelligent beasts do seem to feel emotion to some degree. We'll never know for sure, though.

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by Fireclawiswoot » Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:08 am

Oh my gods.


Of course animals have feelings. They're no different than us, smarter than us actually. They have to be, they don't pollute or destroy the very environment they rely on.

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by laika_wolf » Thu Mar 12, 2015 9:46 pm

I definitely wouldn't say that animals are smarter than us, and I definitely wouldn't say that they're no different than us. I also disagree that the fact that animals don't pollute is an indicator that they feel emotions. I'll explain this in a bit.
I recently watched a documentary called Surviving Progress and in it, there's a scene in which a researcher put a chimpanzee in a room with two l-shaped blocks. They had to stand the blocks on the table with the long part on top, and when they did, they received a piece of fruit. The chimp quickly picked it up. However, one day they replaced the block with one that was ever so slightly lop-sided and fell over whenever the chimp tried to stand it up. The chimp tried and tried and tried, but it never worked. The chimp gave up and returned to his outdoor exhibit.
They tried this again with a 5 year old human, and when they replaced the normal block with a lop-sided one, the child picked it up and examined it, trying to find out why the block tipped over.
And that's the difference between humans and animals. We ask why. That's how we were able to create all these new technologies. However, like animals, we humans are naturally selfish and still want as many resources as possible for ourselves. Our technologies have grown to the point where we are now hurting our planet in our attempt to get more resources. However, because of our greedy nature, we don't even care. We say, "it's not our problem!" even if it really is. If animals asked "why", they would do the same thing, because all creatures think in the interest of their own survival.
To get back on the topic of animals having feelings, I really don't think we can lump all species of animals together. I think determining an animal's ability to have emotions is not just about how smart they are, but also how social the species is, because having emotions would help the group's survival.
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by Pelican » Sun Mar 29, 2015 1:16 pm

I believe that animals have emotions, whether they are similar to ours or not. Dolphins, prairie dogs, and primates other than us are already considered to be nearly as intelligent. I don't see why more research couldn't be put in to whether or not other animals and even creatures such as insects (e.g., bumblebees) are that smart too. In fact, bees and wasps have been trained to detect bombs.

I especially don't like it when people care even less about insects than they do about animals, if at all. Insects are just as important as animals; they're a vital part of the food web. Not to mention, ant colonies appear to be as smart as dolphins, if not even smarter.

Besides, a lot of people have witnessed a doggie jumping up on its owner or licking someone's face all over. They say the dog is happy. But then if that person sees another animal acting happy, it's just "instinct". I really hate that.

I also feel like one of the only people who doesn't consider saying animals have emotions to be 'anthromorphism'. To me, that very word is just a product of human narcissism. (No offense meant, this is just MY opinion.)

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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by EternalLaughter » Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:56 pm

I personally think that animals have feelings. If you watch videos of soldiers coming back from the army and reuniting with their owners, you can tell they have missed them when they start shinning and jumping around licking their owners face and playing with them. Its really unique how the average dog thinks and their emotions are.
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Re: “ Do Animals Have Feelings? ”

Post by Granger » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:16 pm

There are actually many studies looking into this that show, so far, that it seems animals do have feelings and emotions! I certainly agree that animals have feelings and emotions, as just because we are a unique social species does not mean we are the only creatures that can experience feelings. (:


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