That was great. Thanks for posting. Definitely made my day too. Gotta show that one to my wife. She'll love it too!

John

My 'better half' recieved this a week or so ago. After I was 'shown' the video I was 'asked' to 'Get a copy of Born free asap'

Nothing pulls a dollar like a heart string.

Dave

My apologies for jumping down your throat Eric. I was in kind of a bad mood at the time.

No, you can't prove whether or not animals feel emotion. You can only "say" what you've experienced. And I've experienced what "I" believe to be love from all the dogs I've ever owned.

That happy look on their face coupled with the ears drooped back and the tail wagging sure does give the appearance of emotion on their part anyway.

I guess, until they learn to talk, we'll never know.

But when they do learn to talk, we may hear something like this:

i wanta play...i wanta play...i wanta play...throw me the ball...throw me the ball...throw me the ball...alright a mud puddle...let me jump in and roll around... don't care if you just gave me a bath... i love to play in the mud... give me some of your food... i want to sleep in your bed, not the floor... next leg i see, i'm humping... where's the trash bag...etc

Phil, you crack me up.

I would say that the biggest expression for emotion is not language. It's not body language or verbal. It's art, which is the universal communication. It transcends all language and cultural barriers. It also transcends time. It's the one big window into the heart.

...and no animal has ever produced it. They're not able to (yes, I know they can train an ape to hold a paintbrush).

While this isn't proof, I think it's telling.

Note that I'm not downing the love for animals. I think they're here for us to love, and it would be stupid to not take advantage of something we could love. But I do think it's folly to give animals attributes that they don't have.

I know my opinion is minority here, and I don't want to insult anyone else's. But I just think it's time to look at the human condition as something a little more than an upper class of the evolutionary scale. There's a HUGE jump here, and I think emotion is part of it.

Eric, hold true to your feelings and opinions but understand that they are exactly that. You speak as though you are unveiling to us factual information, when you're expressing an opinion.

It's not my goal to win you over to my way of thinking on this forum, and you're wasting your time teaching your theories about the "human condition" and your "evolutionary" beliefs.

It's just a video. Either you "get it" or you don't. Leave it at that.

I wouldn't form any conclusive opinion on this until I've heard from animal behavorialists.

Animals certainly experience emotion differently from us. How complex it is is probably linked to whether we are talking about pack animals (which we are) as opposed to animals that survive independently.

But mammals in particular have been known to exhibit (at times) cross-species altruism. Remember the female gorilla who rescued a little boy who fell into a zoo pit a few years ago?

And click on the related thread below about the lion passionately embracing a woman.

You can argue that it was an act...the lion was trained to do that. But you can't prove it.

Since we got a dog, my girlfriend is a Cesar Millan freak.
http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/

She has to watch every show and buy all the videos.

The other night he was at a house, there were two dogs but one died. And the other dog seemed down and depressed.

Cesar Millan said the dog was grieving and that dogs grieve just like humans.

My wife and I watch that show sometimes. He does some amazing things with animal behavior.

When our dog leads me around on the leash my wife laughs at me and says "Tell him you're the pack leader".

Our dog also loves (or has this "thing") for our aunt's dog - they live about an hour or so away. Ours is male, hers is female. The very mention of the other dog's name makes our dog run around, look out the window, bark, and even put his head down and whimper.

Apart from being touched at watching an obviously happy reunion - what I was left wondering at was - where did that lioness come from???

Holy cardiac arrest batman!

They flippantly said it was "his wife" as if a wild lioness just strolled out of the bush to let a couple of people pet her like a well-trained labrador!

If that really was a wild lioness - then THAT was even more extraordinary!