Eddy Lacrossy age 13; of Coventry, Rhode Island, for his question:
Do cats and other animals have feelings?
If you step on Miss Kitty's tail, she expresses her feelings before you have time to remove your clumsy foot. This is a direct reaction to pain; much like the yelp you utter when you sit on a tack. Later, your cat crouches in a corner and even if you apologize, she utters a few cuss words to show her disapproval. This is an expression of more complex feelings. As the pain subsides, she will approach you with a friendly attitude of forgiveness that is, if the two of you are on good terms.
Certainly cats and other animals have feelings. They react to pain and pleasure much as we do. The higher animals, cats included., also express emotions that seem very similar to ours. Miss Kitty's ultimate gesture of affectionate forgiveness for stepping on her tail is a very high order of emotional reaction. Dogs and other mammal pets also reveal highly complex emotional reactions. For example, we all know the hang dog expression of a puppy who has been badly treated. Recent experiments prove that even cows and other farm animals reveal emotional reactions to the treatment we give them.
As a science, animal behavior is fairly new. We know that all animals that have organized nervous systems react with feelings to bodily pain or injury. But researchers are finding masses of evidence that the higher animals also have highly complex emotional reactions. Most of these responses are triggered by basic drives such as fear, sex and protection of the young. The complex series of emotions displayed in parent birds, for example., is downright amazing.
However, in the field of animal behavior, there is a temptation to take one step overboard. Since we share so many feelings and emotions, it may seem logical to assume that there are no differences. This is not so. In matters of emotion, at least one basic difference separates us from the animal kingdom irrevocably.
Mankind has the unique faculty to observe himself and evaluate his own actions and reactions. This faculty gives him the ability, if he so chooses, to think, to reason and, most important, to remodel himself on the basis of his own decisions. If he so chooses. This faculty is the loftiest step in all creation and it belongs to mankind alone. No animal can sit down and quietly figure out his feelings or the causes that trigger them. For example, the birds now threatened with extinction are totally unable to blame us for polluting their world. Only we have that faculty. Perhaps these thoughts should give us a deeper sense of responsibility in all matters relating to our treatment of the animal kingdom. Only we can feel that responsibility and do something about it. They cannot.
It is true that seals can be trained to perform and that dogs can, and should, be taught to behave. But this is no proof that animals respond willingly or unwillingly, as we do. Their training is based on their simple reactions to pleasure and pain rewards and punishment. In either case, it is unfair to expect too much or take advantage of their devotion. After all, nobody has to teach an affectionate puppy what love is. He knows more about that basic emotion than we do.