A year ago I used the above Amnesty International photo of a Sudanese refugee who was shot and wounded while defending his daughters from armed militia members who tried to rape them. Looking, then, at his eyes, I had asked “what is dead and what just might be green and moist, tender, loving, even hopeful?”
Without the written explanation of what the photo is about, and just looking into the refugee’s eyes, it would be easy enough to intuit that this person was expressing some form of emotion. We might not know exactly what emotion, but it is axiomatic that humans are capable of and hold within themselves any of several types of emotions.
Can the same be said for my neighbour’s dog, Winnie, in the top photo? Having cared for and been witness to her many “human” moods from howling with gladness to sulking for not being allowed up on the couch, I would say she expresses and feels many emotions. Animal right’s activists would most likely agree with me, but does the scientific community?
Well, the answer is yes. Two American research scientists, who had presented papers at an international conference on animal behaviour in Hobart, visited Windgrove this past weekend and explained some of their latest findings. Each has a hugh pedigree of books to their names. The man with the green baseball cap is Marc Bekoff, whose latest book, The Emotional Lives of Animals, “blends extraordinary stories and anecdotes of animal grief, joy, embarrassment, anger, and love with the latest scientific research confirming the existence of emotions that common sense experience has long implied.”
In The Pleasurable Kingdom, Jonathan Balcombe (the bird watcher) sets out with rigourous scientific evidence to formally recognise that animals emote, not just pain and stress, but pleasure as well. “Animals feel good thanks to play, food, touch, sex, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics, and more.”
Bekoff and Balcombe and others are proving what animal lovers have known for generations. Better late, than never, yes? Out of this research, though, the question inevitably arises: what are the ethical ramifications for society? Can we continue with business, as usual? Not only can animal emotions teach us humans about love, empathy, and compassion, they require us to radically rethink our current relationship of domination and abuse of animals.
My only problem with Marc and Jonathan is this: before their Sunday visit my winter reading list was getting shorter and to a stage of manageability, but now, thanks to their literary talents, it looks as if the coffee table will be cluttered with several more books of required reading. Will I be able to find the time to take Winnie for a walk? She’ll be really upset if I don’t.
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