Do Animals Have Feelings? (page 5)

Enigma One

Starting over...you may not want to make the leap to vegan right away. You can start by being a vegetarian or only eat fish as animal flesh. I'm a lacto-ova vegetarian....meaning I eat dairy, eggs, and veggies. I need protein to keep my body humming, so it's tough to do without eggs. I do buy my eggs from a local farmers market though, the chickens are free range organic certified.

oldflame

I do believe that animals have a lot of the same instincts as us humans. They all have hunger, they all thirst, they all procreate, they all love and they all hurt just like us. Now onto why I believe this....

Several years ago I was renting a studio that was built on the back of a house, there was a nice yard and a small spot to grow some garden goodies. It was not a big spot but enough to grow some tomatoes. When the tomatoes sprouted I kept noticing that the insides were being pecked out while they were still green. I had originallt thought it was some kind of bug so I asked a friend about this. He looked at the plants and said that it was birds pecking the insides and probably a blue jay.

I asked him what I could do to keep them off my plants and he said shoot them ! So I barrowed a pellet rifle and waited on my porch for the sucker to come down and eat my tomatoes, sure enough it was not long and the little bird landed and the tomatoes cage and blammo I shot it dead er than a door nail. The bird fell over onto the ground and I left the dead bird there for others to see that this is what happens to those who tread on my tomatoes. What I learned very fast was that there was another bluejay in the tree and this other bird squaked for hours as if it was mourning the loss of it's lover.

Needless to say it had made me sad because I know what it is to loose a loved one and I suffered for a long time in my heart about that other bird loosing it's mate. To this day I don't kill anything unless I plan to eat it, even a bug or spider which I hate most of all, I will not kill. If it is my house I respectfully capture it and set it free to the outside. I CAN NEVER FORGET THAT BIRD MOURNING

DanTheMan

The human brain is an emotion-engine that happens to have some higher-level reasoning abilities that serve to distinguish us -- in varying degrees -- from other animal species.

So, to me, the better question is, do animals experience anything other than feelings?

Bryan

Have you not seen the dog jealous of the new baby or the other dog getting too much attention?

Lion or bear cubs bouncing around having fun. Why would they do it if it did not feel good to them?

I do believe most animals have feelings. Fish do not.

Bryan

Have You Seen My Mother

Apostate Kate

Needless to say it had made me sad because I know what it is to loose a loved one and I suffered for a long time in my heart about that other bird loosing it's mate. To this day I don't kill anything unless I plan to eat it, even a bug or spider which I hate most of all, I will not kill. If it is my house I respectfully capture it and set it free to the outside. I CAN NEVER FORGET THAT BIRD MOURNING

{{{{{{{{{{{OldFlame}}}}}}}}}}}

It takes a great man to admit such compassion, a weak man is macho, kills and boasts about it. I am an eternal optomist and believe that we can all be a part of the solution instead of just hating the problem. I applaud your vegetarianism. Good for you! I wish more would see the need. As far as it being inconvenient, it is more inconvenient for me to have ever been a meat eater due to the health risks. I am high risk for health problems and meat consumption exacerbates all health conditions. Our colons were designed for slow digestion of grains and vegetabales, meat putrifies and causes toxic conditions that over time cause greater health problems. Not to mention the chemicals, hormones, antibiotics that food animals are pumped with.

I believe animals were meant to be our helpers, friends, companions. They are so full of personality and characture, loyalty and protection. My son has a cat that thankfully now lives with him. Homer is a red and white male cat with a wry sense of humor. His thing is pissing people off and watching things fall and break. If you have a cup of coffee or glass of water, he sneeks up and knocks it over. He waits to make sure you see the mess. Smiles as you hollar at him and takes off. He has gotten so sneaky now that he will act like he is just walking past, then make a hook out of his extra long tail and knock it off that way. He will also nonchallantly check out the contents of any visitors purse.He then will carefully act like he is just being a curious cat and quietly remove whatever looks good to him, wallet, money, keys..and carry it off to check it out. He's a nut

startingover

The bluejay story makes me so sad. But out of the sadness came my memory of a bluejay attacking and killing a smaller bird in my yard. I tried to save the small bird but it had already been damaged beyond saving.

I think what we have that animals don't have is a conscience. My birds will do something and act a little remorseful when scolded, but they will turn around and do the same thing 5 minutes later. Absolutely no conscience whatsoever.

I too can no longer kill an animal, even bugs. Sometimes I wish I wasn't like that, it really causes alot of heartache in this world we live in. When iwas a JW I could not understand the aniimal dying thing. My wife would tell me that they would just go away somewhere and we would never know they died, since we wouldn't get attached to them because they would all be tame and we wouldn't keep them like pets as we do now. I now think that is just a fantasy. I think the reality is that nature is cruel.

Enigma-thanks for the advice.

Satanus

My body needs meat. Even though i recognise the nature of animals, that doesn't stop me eating meat. If i had to kill them myself, i suppose that i would be doing a lot of apologising, like the pygmies did in that movie 'the gods must be crazy'. Things like spiders, ants and birds, i try to avoid killing them or making them suffer. I always give the spider campers in the bathroom time to get out of the tub before i turn on the shower. Animals eating animals is just how it is on this fucked up planet. I'm just another animal, after all.

S

defd

Anewme I dont know if this is true or not or if my wife is just mess'n with me but she told me that when a live lobster is thrown in the boiling pot it screams.

D.

defd

I do believe most animals have feelings. Fish do not.

That reminds me of a Nirvana song entitled something in the way. He says that its ok to eat fish cause they dont have any feelings.

D.

loosie

I do believe most animals have feelings. Fish do not

I don't agree with this. I think all animals have feelings.

I had a fish "couple" (mollys) in a with other fish. They were definitely an tiem. He would swim around her and put his fins up when other male fish swam to close to her. And when she died he was actually sad.

So he felt jealousness, sadness and protectiveness.

Do Animals Have Feelings?

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