After a promising start over 120 years ago, when Darwin explored the terrain in his book Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, very few scientists have acknowledged, researched, or even speculated about animal emotions.
To most of us, it is obvious that animals have feelings. Yet science continues to deny it. So persistent are the forces that militate against even admitting the possibility of emotions in the lives of animals that the topic seems disreputable, almost taboo.
John Lilly, one of the first to work scientifically with dolphins, was recently quoted as saying that he no longer works with dolphins because he 'didn't want to run a concentration camp for highly developed beings'. What is in the hearts of dolphins? Dolphins show such delight in performing, even in creating new performances of their own, that an elaborate emotional component seems obvious. They feel and we feel, no matter how difficult it is to know sometimes just what their feelings are.
In India, where elephants have been kept for many centuries, it is widely believed that they shed emotional tears. Sadie, an elephant being trained for the Robbins Brothers Circus, was hit on the side of the head with a large stick one day. To the trainers' astonishment, Sadie began to utter racking sobs, and tears poured from her eyes. The trainers knelt by her, caressing her, and she was never punished again.
A goose does not have a mobile face, so there is little by way of facial expression. However, a goose's emotional body language can be read: goose posture, gestures, and sounds can indicate feelings such as uncertain, tense, glad, victorious, sad, alert, relaxed or threatening.
Pet birds often appear to enjoy human music. Gray parrots sometimes flap their wings in delight when they hear favourite sounds.
Michael, a gorilla learning sign-language, enjoys the singing of Luciano Pavarotti so much that he has been known to refuse opportunities to go outdoors when Pavarotti is on television.
Even if animals cannot remember or anticipate pain, there is no reason to suppose that they suffer any less than humans. Every animal used in every experiment in every laboratory has its own life story. It has felt strong emotions, loved and hated and been devoted to others of its own kind. It is a subject and is therefore violated by being treated as an object.
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