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Those who deny animals any feelings at all may
do so in order to justify animal experiments which
others consider inhumane. This denial of animal
emotions allows them to conduct experiments with
little regard for their subjects' physical or
mental well-being. The denial of animal emotions
is their own hidden agenda rather than a
conclusion based on study of behavior. Are either
of these polarized views correct or do cats also
share certain emotions, perhaps a limited subset
of the emotions we feel? To find out, we must
observe our own and our cats' responses to
situations and analyze what an emotion is.
In
the Lab and in the Field
Laboratory animals and animals in a wild (or
domestic) environment behave differently. They
have different surroundings. Their interaction
with other animals and with humans are very
different. Laboratory animals may have little
opportunity for social contact with others or
their responses may have been impaired through
experimentation or genetics . Some animals are
selectively bred for specific traits and they may
not exhibit "typical" or representative behavior.
Emotions cannot exist in a vacuum - they are
(in part) a response to external factors. Many
laboratory animals show aberrant behavior (e.g.
self-mutilation, feces-eating) due to their
sterile environment. These are signs of stress and
depression, but are often not termed as such for
reasons mentioned earlier. It is recognized that
animals suffer in these conditions, for example
animals in some of the worst zoos show behavioral/emotional
problems: repetitive pacing/rocking and
psychological problems.
Animals
respond to their environment. It is not possible
to accurately assess the normal psychological
responses of a creature which is treated as an
unfeeling biological machine and kept in an
unstimulating or highly abnormal environment. This
is just as dangerous as anthropomorphising animals
in a cutesy fashion. Animal rights/animal welfare
campaigners are often accused of inappropriately
attributing emotions to animals. To recognize
animal emotions would cause problems for
experimental laboratories who do not wish to make
potentially expensive changes to the environment
in which their disposable living "tools"
are stored.
Scientific methods do not like to have too many
variables. Scientists prefer to measure one
variable at a time. Unlike inanimate properties
such as temperature or pressure which are
individually controllable in laboratory
conditions, emotions cannot be isolated.
Environmental factors must be manipulated in order
to produce an emotional change. Individuals may
react in different ways to the same environmental
change. This makes the study of emotions in
laboratory conditions frustrating.
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