Description
Book SynopsisHow is it that depending on the setting, the same cat can be perceived as a homeless annoyance, a potential research subject or a thinking and feeling family member? The answer is bound up in our perception of non-human animals' capacity to experience emotions, and this book draws on contemporary evidence-based research, observations, interviews and anecdotal case scenarios to explore the growing knowledge base around animal emotion. Acknowledging that animals can experience feelings directly affects the way that they are perceived and treated in many settings, and the author explores the implications when humans apply or ignore this knowledge selectively between species and within species.
This information is presented within the unique context of a proposed hierarchy of perceived non-human animals'' emotional abilities (often based on human interpretation of the animal's emotional capacity), with examples of how this manifests at an emotional, spiritual and moral level. I
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1—The need for order
Chapter 2—Zoological Emotional Scale
Chapter 3—Consciousness, sentience and emotion
Chapter 4—Family love or instinct?
Chapter 5—Anthropomorphism or emotion?
Chapter 6—Grief and stress
Chapter 7—Awareness of death
Chapter 8—Spirituality and experiential consciousness
Chapter 9—Spirituality and culture
Chapter 10—Animal morality and moral standing
Chapter 11—Moral standing and animal welfare
Chapter 12—Moral standing and human needs
Chapter 13—Companion animals and emotion
Chapter 14—Conclusion: The need to listen
