Understanding Animal Emotions

Posted on: May 31, 2024

This opinion piece was contributed by the author of the book "Recognising and Responding to Animal Emotion in a Shared World", Vicki Hutton.

What inspired you to write "Recognising and Responding to Animal Emotion in a Shared World"?

Animals have always played a significant role in my life. Although my career trajectory initially took me in the direction of psychology and working with humans, my passion remained with animals and their wellbeing. Eventually I combined both areas and focused my research on the human-animail relationship. While that certainly confimed the strong attachment that many people feel for specific animals, it failed to explain the global mistreatment of other animals perceived as commodities or nuisances. In the face of mounting evidence that many animals have the capacity to experience positive and negative feelings, I drew on my background in human psychology to delve into why some animals are privileged over other animals, any why large-scale animal suffering is often justified, or ignored.

Are there any specific methods or techniques you recommend for recognizing and responding to animal emotions?

We'll never know for sure what an animal is feeling but that shouldn't stop us looking for clues. Despite the indisputable similarities and functional equivalences between human and nonhuman animal nervouce systems, it's impossible to get inside the head of an animal to check their thoughts and feelings. This requires watching animals, accepting differences and resisting the temptation to fall back on familiar interpretations embedded in the human experience.

People have a tendency to project hypothetical feelings onto animals in a process called anthropomorphism. This can be a beneficial, natural and spontaneous way to relate to all animals, both familiar and unfamiliar, but it can also result in inaccurate stereotypes if not used sensitively and appropriately. Animals exist not only as a species that must be managed, protected, utilised or abused, but also as unique individuals whose lives matter. People are quick to point out the dangers of stereotyping other humans and the flow-on effects of discrimination and violence, but this is equally applicable to animals. Perceiving an animal as an individual and recognising the uniqueness of their emotional capacity is a starting point to bring about change in the way we treat animals.

Grief is a very good example. In humans, there is an emphasis on the uniqueness of each person's grief and the belief that there is no right or wrong way to grieve. A similar experience is evident among animals, if only we take the time to observe. People working in animal rescue deal with animal suffering and grief on a daily basis. There may be behavioual manifestations including aggression, disengagement, loss of appetite or toileting issues when an animal loses their home, their human or their companions. Unfortunately recognition that an animal is grieving may not be sufficitent when behavioural manifestations of grief can result in the animal being euthanised before the symptoms subside.

How can understanding and acknowledging animal emotions help improve our relationship with animals?

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we share this planet with the most wonderful collection of unique beings. For many people, animals are on the periphery of their existence, perhaps represented by a companion animal, a trip to the zoo, nature documentaries and the insects that encroach on domestic spaces. Connecting the death of animals to the plastic wrapped meat in supermarkets, the milk cartons, square blocks of cheese, leather shoes and the medicines maintaining human health and longevity is a harder concept to grasp. Perceiving an animal as an individual and recognising the uniqueness of their emotional capabilities is a starting point to bring about change in the way we treat animals.

While this book adds to the growing body of support for animal emotional capacity and the moral implications when this is ignored, it also delves into the mechanisms that have contributed to human domination of animals and the natural world. Humans have long sought to change animals, with sometimes disastrous consequences for the individual animal, the species and the natural world. This disempowering of animals the privileging of human interests suggests change must come from humanity in order to create a more equitable, sustainable and safe future.

What potential challenges or obstacles do individuals or organizations face when trying to recognize and respond to animal emotions?

Human perceptions can play a large part in determining which animals have sufficient emotional capacity to make them worthy of societal protection and which animals can be classified as commoditites or problems, with minimal or no societal protection. How that fragile subjective framework is constructed and enforced can have long-term welfare implications for many animals. In this book I introcue the Zoological Emotional Scale which provides a lens through which to explore the role of human perception in quantifying an animal's emotional capacity, the mechanicms fueling those perceptions and the subsequent implications for the animal.

These perceptions can be influenced by the visual appearence of the animal, first-hand familiarity with the animal or representatives of the species, leaned attitufes about the animal or species, and human cultural factors. Where an individual animal, group of animals or whole species is positioned in these domains can have implications for their perceived worthiness to receive ethical treatment. The Zoological Emotional Scale provides some insigh into who decides which animals are more equal that others, and what can be done about this. Importantly, it offers a tool with which to explore the question - Why do I think this way?

My book also delves into the psychological mechanisms that prevent some people from changing their attitudes. The protective strategies associated with cognitive dissonance (rationalising contradictory beliefs and actions) and psychic numbing (removal of personal responsibility for large-scale atrocities) help explain some of the far-reaching and disastrous consequences of human action - or inaction - in the lives of individual animals, specied and the natural world.

Lastly, what are some key messages that you hope our readers will take away from this book?

Directly or indirectly, humanity's potentially irreversible impact on the planet is encroaching on every aspect of animals' lives, whether in research and animal testing laboratories, factory farms, illegal trafficking or degradation of the natural environment. This disempowering of animals and the privileging of human interests suggests change must come from humanity in order to create a more equitable, sustainable and safe future.

Those already living with, caring for or working with animals will gain further insight and validation of their intuitive knowledge that animals have feelings. However, I'm also hoping this book will provide greater awareness for those who have not yet realised the uniqueness of the animals with whom we share this planet, and draw attention to the ethical implications of ignoring an animal's status as an emotional being.