Learning from our Companions: Animal Grief
The study of animal emotions has been engaging scientists for a long time and is crucial to the animal protection movement. If we are able to prove that animals have sentience and a similar range of emotions to us humans, then the mistreatment of them in various contexts becomes much harder to justify. Still, while some scientists have developed various methods to study the emotions of animals, its research has been complicated by the fact that scientists often “push back the bar” for animals. While researchers may recognize that animals have “basic emotions” such as joy and fear, they often disagree or are skeptical that animals have “more complex” emotions such as guilt or embarrassment. Regardless of this, the study of animal emotions remains important to how we understand and care for our non-human friends.
This particular study looks at the more complex emotion of grief in animals, by seeing if living with a companion animal influences how we ascribe emotions to them. The researchers wanted to know if living with animals could influence “the belief that animals can grieve (including situations that initiate a grief response, behaviours affected by grief and how grief may differ in humans and animals).” They studied both people who live with companion animals and those who don’t. A questionnaire was developed and administered by trained researchers via face-to-face interviews with 1000 respondents in Brisbane, Australia. The three-part questionnaire looked at whether the respondents generally believe that animals experience emotions, such as depression, happiness, anxiety, love, anger, sadness, distress, grief, and fear. There was also an in-depth section enquiring about grief and grief-related emotions. Other parts of the questionnaire examined demographic information of various types to evaluate the kind of people who were responding to the survey.
The researchers discovered that “non-owners are less likely to believe in the existence of emotional experiences in animals may be the result of a lack of familiarity with animals.” They suggest that “the ability or willingness to empathise is likely to have played a key role in our respondents’ beliefs regarding animals’ emotional experiences.” In other words, people who live with companion animals tend to have a higher level of empathy towards animals and may be better able to connect with them. The researchers note that, though “the behaviours witnessed in non-human animals that appear to parallel those seen during human grieving are often dismissed as manifestations of physiological changes, eg the pronounced behavioural responses to weaning seen in farm animals,” this is also a matter of perception. While some may dismiss this behavior as a kind of physiological response, “companion animal owners were significantly more likely than non-owners to believe that animals grieve.” Respondents who didn’t live with a companion animal were significantly more uncertain as to whether the separation of unrelated animals living together would cause grief. People who lived with companion animals had a very different perception of the same situation.
For animal advocates, this study is further proof that sharing your life with a companion animal can be a transformative experience for the people – and the animals – involved. The researchers note that the general public’s “belief in an animal’s ability to experience emotions, regardless of their actual existence, has a direct bearing on public concerns about animal welfare.” Therefore, understanding these aspects of animal emotions and how we perceive them is key in our pursuit to gain the widespread protection of animals. Studies like this that examine the variables influencing the human perception of emotion in animals can be useful to us in advancing our cause.