Animals have emotions and empathy too, there are proofs!

in animals •  7 years ago 

Footage of a calb beeing rejected by his mother. Tears running down the baby elephants face:

A hungry lioness changing it's mind when hunting:

Experiment with langur colony to see how they react to a dead infant:

Short excerpt of Simon Worall's "Yes, Animals Think And Feel. Here's How We Know":

"Many people think that empathy is a special emotion only humans show. But many animals express empathy for each other. There are documented stories of elephants finding people who were lost. In one case, an old woman who couldn’t see well, got lost and was found the next day with elephants guarding her. They had encased her in sort of a cage of branches to protect her from hyenas. That’s seems extraordinary to us but it comes naturally to elephants.
(Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150714-animal-dog-thinking-feelings-brain-science/)

People have also seen humpback whales help seals being hunted by killer whales. There is a documented account of a humpback sweeping a seal on its back out of the water, away from the killer whales. These things seem extraordinary and new to us because we have only recently documented these incidents. But they have probably been doing these kinds of things for millions of years."

Carl Safina even wrote a book about "What animals think and feel", here is a record of one of his lectures:

Humans need to start meeting animals on an equal footing. We need to live in harmony with the nature, instead we try to reign over our planet which will lead to many crisis in the near future.

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I do understand that it is how nature and the cycle of life works. But I just could not bring myself to watch the baby elephant video. But I did watch the rest. And this is an amazing post. And I agree 100% YES. Animals can and do feel emotions. Thank you for sharing this.

appreciate your honest opinion, thank you!

You are most welcome.

These animals understand life, better then us humans understand life

You are right

Great post @ddot upvoted!!

Humans are geneticaly very similar to other living creatures so no wonder that those animals can feel the same kind of empathy. The tendency to reign over the planets resources comes to a great extent from the minds of religious big shots. http://www.businessinsider.com/comparing-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-other-things-2016-5/#for-humans-were-999-similar-to-the-person-sitting-next-to-us-the-rest-of-those-genes-tell-us-everything-from-our-eye-color-to-if-were-predisposed-to-certain-diseases-1

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

The Source states, that bananas are 60% equal to the human. Does this mean inhuman humans are most likely bananas?

It may be, that their percentage of bananas in DNA is bigger than 60%, or they are just assholes :D

Absolutely right! Animals have emotions. Live and let live! :) Never mess with mother nature.

absolutely, nothing to add there... :)

I'm not a fan of Jeremy Bentham's overall philosophy but on some things he was totally on the nose, and I just love this quote of his (the bolded part is the Cliff's Notes for anyone who doesn't want to read the whole thing):

"Other animals, which, on account of their interests having been neglected by the insensibility of the ancient jurists, stand degraded into the class of things. ... The day has been, I grieve it to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated ... upon the same footing as ... animals are still. The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps, the faculty for discourse?...the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?... The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes... "
Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

I very much believe that animals are emotional and empathetic. And I feel like anyone who has had a pet would agree, especially if that pet is a dog, who show so much character, personality, emotion, all of it. To me though, at the end of the day, what matters is that it's unquestionable that they can feel pain. Even if they were not able to emote, we should be kind to them for that reason alone.

Thank you for your comment Sir. The statement you quoted is exactly the way of how it should be thought about it.
And yes, every petholder knows about emotions and empathy of animals, or at least they should know about it.

iam agreat to read this post

Nice post!

This interesting post bro @ddot

absolutely sir i like your kindness.

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Very very very nice post thank you very much for sharing

thank you :) u're welcome

This is an absolute eye-opener for me, a sort of mental game changer; because I was under the impression that these near-human behaviours were to be found in a small subset of the non-human life forms including the ape family, elephants, dogs and dolphins.

I have never studied the subject in any depth; but over the years I got the impression that this special levl of intelligence was to be found just in those particular classes. So I am going to go back to Square One now to ponder the implications of this information.

Thanks again!