The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy ― and Why They Matter

This lovely book should be in every classroom, library and home. It is a bright beacon of light along the road to better treatment of animals everywhere. Professor Bekoff shows how other animals are just like us. They share all of the same feelings and emotions that have previously been considered the sole prerogative of humans. This will come as a sobering thought for many people. However, it should be no surprise to anyone as we are all related and have merely branched out into different species and lifestyles through the process of evolution. All of us are fellow travellers on different roads through the same landscape.For far too long 'animals' have been regarded as some sort of 'other'; something different from humans. It was a case of 'them' and 'us'. As a result other creatures have been abominably treated by man throughout history, and tragically still are. However, recent research shows that we are far more alike than we are different. We are all 'us', humans and other animals included. Other animals are just 'different kinds of us', that's all. They have minds as we do. They have personalities and all that goes with them. They have their own sense of self and their own viewpoint on the world.As a result, Professor Bekoff's book is a biological Copernican revolution. It is a total change of mindset on how we view our fellow creatures. And not before time either. Professor Bekoff explains that we must regard other animals in a new light because of these findings. Because we are all so similar we have a duty to treat other animals with the respect they deserve. We must show them the kindness and compassion that we would members of our own species. We cannot continue to abuse them as we have done, and sadly, still do on a colossal scale and in colossal numbers. And by diminishing our fellow creatures we diminish ourselves.Please read this marvellous book. It will open your eyes. You will never regard other animals the same again. There can be no progress in the world until we treat our fellow creatures with kindness and compassion.

Marc Bekoff has rattled more than a few cages in his long career as a cognitive ethologist, but that does not make what he has to say any less true. This book summarizes the case for recognizing the similarities we share with our non-human mammalian companions, and it does so with flair, as well as attention to scientific detail.For scientists or simply science buffs, this book has plenty to satisfy, but it's not just for them. This book is more for the average American who has always sensed the truths of non-human emotional lives (or maybe even has not), but is curious about the science behind the facts.I have long been fond of saying "a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain, whether it belongs to you, your cat or my horse." Marc Bekoff makes this same statement with much more clarity and deeper understanding.This book should leave you with a greater respect for the lives of the non-humans we share this planet with, and a deeper understanding of the ways our experiences here are the same, rather than focusing on what's different. It turns out the similarities are greater than the differences!But all the science aside, this is also a book filled with great stories of observations of scientists and laypeople alike that back up the studies. Stories like the one told by an e-mail friend of mine, who witnessed two young mice trapped, where one helped the other to recover rather than just seeking its own salvation (I wonder if humans would have had the same level of compassion!).This book should change your life. If it doesn't then your mind must be very closed, indeed.

As hard as it is to believe, there are *still* people out there who doubt whether animals experience emotion. For anyone who lives with a cat, dog, bird, or other furry friend there is almost certainly no question the animal experiences a range of emotions. The range of those emotions, however, is open for debate but most of us don't doubt their existence.Bekoff opens the book by defining his field of study (cognitive ethology) and building a case for animal emotion. He also touches on anthropomorphism and how this is a useful and meaningful way to describe animal emotion even though (hard) science has occasionally derided the person who assigns "human" emotion to animal behavior. The remainder of the book presents evidence and examples of animal emotion and behavior in support of his thesis.An unattributed quote on p.23 sums up the book well: "If I assume that animals have subjective feelings of pain, fear, hunger, and the like, and if I am mistaken in doing so, no harm will have been done; but if I assume the contrary, when in fact animals do have such feelings, then I open the way to unlimited cruelties...Animals must have the benefit of the doubt, if indeed there be any doubt."

Marc Bekoff is a wonderful and gentle writer about his studies of animal emotions. I've read three of his books (so far) and this was the first! He backs up his words with plenty of scientific studies -- his own, and those of other ethologists -- and he is amazingly non-confrontational toward scientists who may not agree with him. Everyone with a dog or other animal companion knows in his/her heart that animals have emotions very similar to those of humans, but now there is scientific evidence... and the growing fields of ethology (animal behavior) and neuroscience add more proof every day. The anecdotes in this book are very moving, and sometimes quite sad. Humans as a species need to learn to live with other animals, domesticated and wild, as we are all part of our planet's "ecology". Dr. Bekoff makes compelling arguments for compassionate and ethical treatment of all animals. That he writes so beautifully and with such respect and kindness only strengthens the impact of his stories and studies. I've bought second copies of this and another of his books as gifts for family members (so far), both of whom now want to read more by Dr. Bekoff!

Once in a while it's a joy to come across an inspiring book which deserves to be consulted time and time again. Lesley Skipper's brilliantly researched and observed "Inside Your Horse's Mind" had that effect on me, as did Lucy Rees' "The Horse's Mind". For me, this beautifully written book, by the eminent animal biologist Marc Bekoff, will be sharing pride of place on my bookshelf.This is a study which anyone who has an interest in animal behaviour will delight in. Behaviours such as loneliness and weaving amongst elephants, bereavement of donkeys and affection shared by whales remind us that all mammals share many neuroanatomical similarities, even if we cannot be sure that they experience emotion in the same way.The book might be seen as a series of self-contained essays, tackling topics such as what animals feel and ethical questions about how we respond to what we know about animal emotion. Bekoff doesn't pretend to know the answers, but he challenges fellow scientists to use common sense alongside their quest for the perfect `scientific method' and to stop seeing animals as little more than moving objects. He argues that anecdotes gathered from repeated observations aren't to be brushed off as fool-hardy irrelevancies, and even suggests that there's a time and place for carefully applied anthromorphism.Whilst backed by extensive research - the end notes alone reach over 30 pages - Bekoff's writing style is simple, speaking to the lay reader and written from the heart. I actually felt I could picture him sitting at his window wondering what it's like to be the fox standing on his lawn, whilst the whole book is written from a desire to better understand and co-exist with the animals he so loves. As his co-founder of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Jane Goodall says in her Foreword, `I only hope [the book] will persuade many people to reconsider the way we treat animals in the future.'

Full of nice stories and lots of science behind it. Easy to read (even though I am not a native English speaker).

As a cat behaviourist myself I found this book to give real food for thought on the human position regarding animals. It is beautifully written and every page had me delving deeper into my own journey and others. http://www.catbehaviourist.com

A truly inspirational book. Shows why all creatures should be treated with respect and kindness. Would recommend that you read it. If anyone does not believe that animals are sentient creatures, this will change your mind

I am studying zoology and found this book very touching, informative and progressive. Hats off.