By Evan See
Man has never been doubted over his affection for his canine best friend. However, how much does a pet reciprocate the love of its owner?
There have been multiple studies on this issue, but we still don’t know if humans and animals share emotional experiences, simply because we have yet to understand how animals process emotion. Do humans naturally have a wider range of emotions that animals just cannot experience? Where do the parallels between the species start and end?
The ‘Basic’ Emotions
There’s really no scientific consensus over the ability of animals to experience emotions. Some scientists think that animal emotion is limited to “basic” emotions like anger, fear, happiness, sadness and disgust. Others reject such claims due to criticism of their methodologies – that without linguistic expression from animals, it is impossible to truly understand if they have mental experiences distinct from mere physiological instincts. Some believe that animals simply respond to neurologically-programmed instincts like the fight-or-flight response. A dog’s wagging tail could display happiness, or could simply be a neural stimulus in response to anticipating a reward. A cat with an arched back could simply be responding to threat detection through the amygdala.
With the more complex emotions like grief or satisfaction, the scientific jury remains equally undecided. A common belief among dog owners is that dogs are unable to process guilt in the same way humans are, and scolding the dog only makes it feel sadness and fear instead of shame. The “kill-or-be-killed” world of the animal kingdom could suggest that feelings of empathy in predators would be counterproductive to their survival. While it is common to see dogs comforting owners in distress, some have argued that domesticated dogs have merely learnt over many generations to comfort their owners due to being rewarded for such behaviour.
While it is exceedingly difficult to form scientific conclusions about emotion by studying animal responses in a controlled environment, many are convinced that they are capable of intense emotion. Koko, the famous sign-language speaking gorilla, was reported to have made vocalisations similar to human weeping when her pet cat died. Dogs have been found to produce the hormone oxytocin, a chemical associated with feelings of love in humans, when they stare into their owners’ eyes.
The Conscious Animal
Much of the debate relates to the concept of consciousness – the idea of knowing that you are feeling; an awareness of a mental experience that goes beyond mere neural stimuli. Think of it as the “empty space” between an event occurring and a physiological response – the space that emotions occupy.
Consciousness had previously been regarded as an exclusively human feature, with scientists believing that “the first mind sparked awake sometime after we split from chimps and bonobos”. With an awareness of the self and an understanding that others share similar experiences, many considered it evident that humans alone could understand complex concepts like empathy and spirituality that go beyond basic survivalist functions.
But in recent times, scientific opinion is leaning more towards the idea that a good number of nonhuman animals understand the concept of the self. In 2012, a group of scientists presented The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, declaring that the cognitive ability to experience conscious states is indeed common “among all mammals and birds, and many other creatures.” Several countries have legislation regarding animal welfare that recognise animal consciousness. New Zealand’s Code of Welfare for Sheep and Beef Cattle places high priority on eliminating feelings of fear and panic in cattle, while Switzerland has mandated that crustaceans have to be stunned before they are placed in boiling water, despite common belief that their underdeveloped brains are incapable of processing pain.
To many who work with animals, this seems very clear. However, the age old question of whether animals feel the same way we do isn’t that easily answered. It’s been hypothesised that dogs are able to experience the same emotions as a two-year-old human, suggesting that animals do feel emotions, albeit much less complex and more muted ones. Still, numerous observers have repeatedly witnessed animal behaviours so innately human that it makes us wonder.
Do We Really Feel More?
National Geographic reported a case of a visually-impaired woman who had gotten lost, and was later found with a group of elephants who had protected her from hyenas by enclosing her in a housing made of branches. Others have also witnessed humpback whales protecting seals from killer whales by lifting them on their backs out of the water. And while the bond between an owner and their pet, like the famous Hachiko, suggests complex emotions in animals, it’s the relationships between these undomesticated animals and the beneficiaries they have no association with that captures it best.
Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist, observed chimpanzees performing “waterfall displays”, or dances performed in front of waterfalls for no apparent reason apart from seeming to display the chimp’s awe and wonder towards a towering waterfall. She described one instance where a chimp, after “rhythmic swaying and swinging on vines…stood at top of the falls dipping his hand into the stream and rolling rocks one at a time down the face of the waterfall…then (after descending) turned to the falls and stared at it for many minutes.” Such behaviour seems to go beyond any animalistic notion we know, intruding into the realms of human spirituality and reverence of beauty.
So if you’re wondering: “does this mean my dog feels guilty when he urinates on the carpet?”, the answer is no, not necessarily. Research hasn’t presented a definitive answer to this question, with some researchers adamant that dogs cannot feel guilt, as well as a lack of empirical evidence. But consider how most of our emotions have an evolutionary basis, like our eyes widening when we feel frightened – likely a survival instinct to widen our visual field. It doesn’t seem unlikely that animals, whose consciousness we have already established, could have evolved to develop any of the emotions we consider to be uniquely human. Sadly, it’s a theory we will likely never find hard evidence for, short of telepathic communication with animals. But the next time you consider purchasing fur products or eating factory-farmed meat, perhaps just think about how they may not be that different from us after all.
