We Aristopeters know that our animals have feelings. They feel joy, sadness, anger… We know they love us. And they know that we love them. We understand their emotions well because we spend hours and hours with them. Because we treat them as what they are: one more member of the family.
Humans have lived alongside dogs for more than 40,000 years and shared our history with them. Cats came into our lives a little later, 9,500 years ago, but even so, that is a very, very long time, don’t you think?
Our relationship with animals has not always been the way it is today. The status of animals has evolved (fortunately) over the years. In certain religions and cultures, animals were sacred. In Ancient Egypt, pigs were sacred; in India, there is an ancient festival called Nag Panchami, where snakes are worshipped; in China, tigers are worshipped; while in India, cows are. In Nepal, dogs are believed to be messengers of the gods and to guard the gates of heaven, which is why their day is celebrated on November 14.
As you can see, there are quite a few examples, but in general, animals have been despised for centuries. Descartes went so far as to say that animals were “automata devoid of feelings.” Descartes: so wise about some things, but about others…
The situation continued this way until Darwin arrived. He was the first to realize that all living beings share the same origin and to challenge the conventions of the time, which treated animals as inferior beings.
Thanks to him, the path toward animal empathy began, and people started to understand that the emotions of many social animals are similar to ours (and sometimes even nobler). There were studies involving birds, insects, fish, rats, chimpanzees… And even gorillas and humpback whales.
Less than a century ago, ethology emerged, the discipline that studies animal behavior, and it gradually grew until major universities began offering specialized departments, such as the Animal Welfare Science department at Washington State University.
Today, animal self-awareness is being debated. There is discussion of mirror neurons and the fact that elephants, dolphins, dogs, and other “social animals” rank among the species most likely to possess the biological mechanisms for at least a primitive empathic response.
Regardless of the advances science makes in this area, we Aristopeters know firsthand that our animals get angry and feel jealous; they become sad and worry about us. They are happy and understand us better than many people around us. That is why we treat them with love and respect and recognize their rights.
Universal declarations of animal rights, European laws and directives, and legislation in European Union countries (such as Spain, where the Penal Code punishes the mistreatment of domestic animals) are all very positive and represent significant progress, but there is still much to do regarding animal rights, and the most important step is to ensure that humanity understands that animals have emotions.
At Aristopet, we have set out to join together and grow stronger as a community. Sharing our stories with our best friends can be a simple, more down-to-earth way of bringing all this research closer to the vast majority of people who are not aware of animal welfare issues. So we invite you to share with all Aristopeters those stories or anecdotes that make you certain your animals feel, understand, and love.