Animals Have Emotions?...of Course!

Originally written May 15, 2009
David Walega

There are so many interesting books being published about the emotional state of animals, or whether they share emotions at all similar to humans. On recent visit to Elliott Bay, a very helpful store employee brought me stacks of books ranging from philosophy to dog training all to do with the emotional state of animals. Most take a scientific approach to proving the emotional lives of animals and what we can learn from our four legged friends.
Temple Grandin recently published her book with Catherine Johnson , “Animals Make Us Human’.  A fascinating read. In this book they ‘considers how humans and animals can best interact.' Working from the premise that an animal is a conscious being that has feelings, the autistic author assesses dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, poultry, wildlife and zoo animals based on a core emotion system she believes animals and humans share, including a need to seek; a sense of rage, fear, and panic; feelings of lust; an urge to nurture; and an ability to play.‘ To anyone who has bonded with a furry friend this is old news, however more and more examples have been popping up on the Internet to support these findings, some emotionally heart wrenching and others just plain heart destroying.

Consider this wounded dog rescuing another dog no matter the chaos of the situation.


How many of us would dodge oncoming traffic to protect a loved one? Well most of the people I know would,and that’s just the point, how is this behavior any different than ours. Without the gift of language this little dog does his darnedest to protect his friend.

Another book  “ Thanking the monkey, rethinking the way we treat animals” ( Karen Dawn) is a nonstop conversation on all side of the animal rights movement and manages to inform us of the most cruel realities of animal treatment while keeping it informative and fresh. I would recommend it for anyone needing a primer on Animal Rights or someone who is just interested in the conversation as a whole. And its plugged by David Duchovny, TV's Fox Mulder, need we say more.