On the farm where I grew up I was always amazed at animals. Without being asked or trained, our cat would often leave presents at our front door. Our goats would grieve when other goats were sold. They would form likes and dislikes. Our dogs were very capable of guilt, shame, affection, remorse. My pet poodle was just as excited as a kid opening presents at Christmas, and later wanted to cuddle in gratitude. It can be argued that lions bring meat back from the hunt to share with their pride. It can be argued that goats have herding instincts that simulate grief. It can be argue that dogs just want to please their masters because they see a family as a pack, and see us as the "alpha dogs" of their pack. But I really believe there is far more to it than that.
The Watchtower Society has always stressed that animals are created differently than humankind. "Man" was created superior to beasts. They claim that "man" (notice how they always leave out "woman" in referring to humans) alone has emotions, and that God created animals without feelings, subjective to "man," only to provide pleasure to "man." Any "emotions" your family pet may exhibit are just an illusion, animals only have instinct and were not given the ability to reason. They are incapable of feeling they same way the "human heart" feels. They express behaviors which we interpret as feelings because they so closely mimic emotions.
I remember strongly disagreeing with this viewpoint. Having grown up on a farm, I could observe that behaviors are learned and often motivated by reward, but many animals also have strong emotions, that are different than just behaviors, and motivate behaviors just as effectively as reward. Watching and observing these creatures makes it very apparent that behaviors are one thing and emotions are another.
I suspect that somewhere the Society made this distinction, and it served them to draw a sharp line between man and beasts to counter the effects of Darwin's theory of evolution. They liked to point out that "man" alone was capable of reasoning. They pointed out that humans alone spoke a language. We alone can comprehend the nature of God. I suspect that this idea was the pet idea of someone at the Society just as some of their other kooky ideas, such as aluminum being the Devil's metal, vaccinations being a way to transfer personality, the Pleiades being the actual place in the Heavens where God resides, and the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza can be used to calculate Armaggedon.
In other words, it's just more Watchtower BS!
Tammy
