Poll Do Animals Think and Have Feelings?

[JD]

Your animals, that you spend time around, certainly do have thinking brains, and emotional responses... but they're not just like us... & I don't say that to diminish them, only to highlight the differentiation. They don't think or feel in the same ways we do.
There's similarities or course, & maybe it's something of a continuum like @StarMan suggested, where they have developmentally subjacent versions comparatively, but yes. MANY animals having functional thought processes going on, & also exhibit social & emotional processes as well. It's evolutional after all. We didn't uniquely develop those things out of the blue. It can be found in varying degrees all around the animal kingdom.

Oh yeah, definitely. Their minds definitely work differently from ours, but there's still something going on there. The thing that irritates me s when people try to say everything they do is purely instinct with nothing deeper going on there.

BTW, WE too still operate on instincts far more than any of us realize or even want to admit. We are just animals too, that were fortunate enough to get some solid prosperity time banked, for specific types of development that got us here.

Oh yeah, I think everyone has times where something goes off and they kick into pure instinct mode.

That's an odd distinction though. We're omnivores. We can eat just about any animal. We choose to eat & farm the ones we frequently eat for specific reasons, chief most among them their ease in handling. which would include not being dangerous enough to eat us.

OK, you bring up a good point there.

Because we're not usually an active part of their normal food chain, or even their local environment in most cases, but as we've agreed, many predators like mammalian ones do think, & once they start thinking human might be good on their menu, then the possibility of open season is very likely.

Yeah, that's probably true. I guess we've just been lucky enough that none of the predators around us have eaten enough people to make us a regular prey for them.

A lot of what works in our favor imho is that we are unusual to them, & that makes hunting us appear by & large too risky. There's a lot of unknowns for them when encountering us... & so to be fair, the large amount of time predators attack humans, it's a baser instinct like protecting themselves or their young or territory (which sustains them & their young)

Yeah, a lot of the times people have been attacked predators it's been because the person put themselves in a dangerous situation, not because the animal was hungry and in the mood for people.

And I get pretty tired of dumb movie nonsense like that, personally.

Yeah, they keep advertising that new movie Beast, with the killer lion going after Idris Elba and his family, and it's just drives me crazy each I see stuff for it.

I think they do. They aren't self aware like humans but emotions and feelings are more than just that. I also think they are more in tune with their instincts than humans.

I think quite a few animals are self aware, if I'm defining it right. I believe they do the mirror test to determine self awareness and quite a few animals have passed. I know apes and dolphins have, and I'm pretty sure there are a few other animals have too.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah, they keep advertising that new movie Beast, with the killer lion going after Idris Elba and his family, and it's just drives me crazy each I see stuff for it.

Looks like it's another highly fictionalized retelling based-on the lions of Tsavo, but in a modern setting and switching out the actual setting of colonial-era British-led construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railroad using Indian and African laborers in 1898 for a widower and his daughters on a photo safari to remember their wife/mother in present day Africa.

The trailer directly lifts several shots and lines of dialogue directly from the 1996 movie 'The Ghost and the Darkness' with Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, John Kani, Bernard Hill, Tom Wilkinson, and Emily Mortimer.

There was also the Mfuwe, Zambia lion in 1991 that killed six people before being killed. It was enormous and even broke through the door of a home to kill the woman inside.

Interestingly, in both these cases all three male lions involved were maneless lions, yet all the movies choose to depict them with a full mane because that's what people expect a male lion to look like. Personally I think a maneless lion stealthily stalking you would be scarier.

Obviously these kinds of attacks are extremely rare outlier events and not normal lion behavior or any reason to fear or hunt them, and were caused by human encroachment on their territory and in some theories (not widely agreed upon) like high testosterone levels causing hyper-aggressiveness, or dental issues with the lions in question which makes it difficult for them to take down larger prey like buffalo using their jaws. Humans then become an easier target.

 

[JD]

Oh, OK. I didn't realize that was where it came from.
I've never heard about the one in '91, that's nuts. But like you said, there are usually specific reasons they do that, they don't just randomly decide to go after people.
What bugs is when people treat every lion or bear or whatever like it's going to kill you the moment it sees you. Obviously they are dangerous, and you need to be extremely careful when you run into them, but more often then not as long as you don't do anything stupid, they'll leave you alone.

 

[Jedi Marso]

That's a terrible comparison.

Cats that are spayed before they first go through heat have a lower chance of developing breast cancer and cancers of the reproductive system. We adopted a cat named Sierra when she was three who we found out wasn't spayed by the previous owner until she was over a year old and she developed breast cancer and had to be euthanized because the tumor grew into her lungs and she was in pain and had difficulty breathing.

They also have less chance of developing infections of the reproductive organs since they're removed.

They are less likely to try and escape the house to mate so in turn they are less likely to be hit by cars, attacked by other animals, get infections or illnesses from other animals, get lost, stolen, etc.

Along with the factors mentioned above, not having to go through physically taxing childbirth (an average littler is four, but can be as many as twelve kittens) increases the lifespan of early spayed cats on average by several years.

Spaying prevents cats from giving birth to numerous kittens that most people who don't live on a farm / large property or in a huge house are ill-equipped to care for and are often malnourished, mistreated, fight for territory / dominance / food, or escape and are euthanized en masse by the city's animal control department or non no-kill shelters who can't afford to care for them if they're not adopted in time.

Spaying (and neutering for male cats) is a life-saving and life-extending procedure for cats that should be done before a cat goes through their first heat (around six months) for anyone who is not prepared or equipped to care for numerous kittens who will grow to have numerous kittens of their own like Tribbles.

Spaying and neutering are beneficial to the cats. Declawing is not, and is a permanently debilitating and painful (and not just after the surgery) amputation that leaves them defenseless and unable to itch and less able to clean themselves, among other issues. If you want to own cats, you're just going to have to accept that scratching furniture is a package deal and take what measures you can to mitigate it that don't involve amputating your cat's claws, which would be like cutting off all your fingers and toes at the first knuckle and then having to walk on them and use your nubby hands for the rest of your life. Buy a scratching post or hang some scratch pads near the couch and other soft furniture for them to scratch instead. There is scratch resistant furniture you can buy as well. We bought a scratch resistant couch.

As someone who has fostered cats / kittens through a rescue agency for years, I can second all of this. Great post.

 

[cosmic mouse]

Absolutely.

I've worked (i.e., my career) with a variety of non-human animal species for the last 20+ years or so, and I can say, unequivocally, that they think (generally speaking and in more complex ways, such as "pondering " a specific item or action), and they definitely feel specific sentiments (rats have the ability to appreciate being "tickled" among other examples) ...

 

[Sindatur]

Love Birds mate for life, if it was instinct, they would simply get another mate, not lose the will to live when their mate dies.

Cats take revenge. Dogs, cats, dolphins, and probably others learn command words. I speak normally to my cats, and see the expected response from the ones that seem smarter, but not others who seem less aware. Some dogs get lonely when left alone. They show signs of sadness when their long time companions pass away.

Yea, definitely various animals have varying degrees of thinking and feeling.

 

[Mojochi]

A sharp animal like cats & dogs can even sense a person's mood and respond appropriately

 

[Sindatur]

A sharp animal like cats & dogs can even sense a person's mood and respond appropriately

Yes, I've had a cat who is not normally affectionate come up and comfort me when needed.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Honestly why would you think they don't? I still miss my little Roxy she definitely had her own personality and thoughts, would show you how she felt an such. so that's a yes for me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A sharp animal like cats & dogs can even sense a person's mood and respond appropriately

Bill Burr agrees.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

My Octopus Teacher...

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[JD]

My mom and I watched that, it was good.
Octopuses really are amazing.