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

Do no harm is the essence of this book. It provides colorful insight into the real emotional lives of various animals. The author used a wide variety of sources, & field observations from wildlife biologists. The section on neurobiology were the most interesting for me. The fact that animals share several of our neural structures for emotion came as no surprise to this lay person. I have always felt { & have been bashed plenty for it}, that animals often represent the better half of human nature that we sometimes submerge. Dogs, Reptiles, Monkeys, Rats, Moon Bears, Whales & Elephants are all here. The latter are probably the most fascinating creatures in the book? The authors advocacy for animals was very refreshing to this animal lover. His basic thesis gives us a crucial point, "that if we are not certain about an animals emotions, we should presume that they often feel exactly what we humans do." For that compassionate view I had to up my four star impression to a hearty five.

This is an excellent book, and I don't disagree with anything he says. However, he makes much of his case based on anecdotal evidence. He does cite scientific studies, but these are peripheral to the stories. I don't really mind this because I agreed with him before I ever started reading the book, and I enjoyed the stories. If he's looking to persuade people, which I think he should, he might have gone a little heavier on the science and a little lighter on the stories. Regardless of whether he has proven his case about the emotions of animals, his book gives us one pivotal concept we can rely on: if we don't know for sure, the default assumption should be that animals do have emotions until proven otherwise. To paraphrase: If I assume animals feel pain and pleasure and love, and act accordingly, and then it turns out my assumption was wrong, I will have done no harm. However, if I assume that animals don't have feelings, and then it turns out I was wrong, I may have caused immeasurable damage.

Marc Bekoff's The Emotional Lives of Animals is a wonderful book. I was impressed by the scope and depth of the research underlying the book, and by the way that Bekoff makes scientific data interesting and accessible to a general readership. The writing is lively; Bekoff weaves together stories of animal emotions with scientific data supporting his ideas about animal empathy, fairness, grief, pleasure, joy, and sadness. And his thesis is hardhitting: If animals do indeed live the rich emotional lives that Bekoff describes--and we have every reason to believe they do--then we may, by force of logic, be led to reconsider our moral obligations to them. Bekoff is obviously passionate about his subjects, but never does his writing sound strident. Instead, he uses humor and grace to navigate the controversial terrain of animal welfare.

Dr. Bekoff has written a book that should be read not just by ethologists , and animal lovers, this book should be mandatory reading for all human animals. I think we, humans, thumb users, with more "evolved" brains, and language must consider what Dr. Bekoff is telling us about our human species. In all our evolution we have moved beyond the important basics that our non-human animal friends hold so dear, the community. Learning about the emotions of non-human animals, and the "tribe", "herd", "pack", whatever community they are involved with, brings us face to face with not just our callous disregard for their emotions, but how we have run from ours; substituting our concern for our fellow man with our desire for materialistic belongings. Perhaps, as we deepen our understanding of non-human individuals by reading Dr. Bekoff's book we will also deepen our connection with ourselves, as well as with our individual no-human friends. Thank you Dr. Bekoff for your contribution to many fields with the writing of this book. READ IT! Bruce Gottlieb, Psychotherapist.

This is a wonderful book and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you want to read just one book which provides insight into the complex emotional lives of animals this is it. Dr. Bekoff draws from a wide array of sources, including personal anecdotes from animal lovers and field observations from wildlife biologists, to arguments about Darwinian evolution and continuity, to the latest discoveries in neurobiology which demonstrate that animals share many of our same neural structures for emotion. The wonderful stories about grief, joy, awe, humor and other emotions in a variety of animals, including rats, dogs, elephants, whales, macaws, chimpanzees, monkeys, and moon bears will make you smile and cry. Dr. Bekoff, however, doesn't stop at simply making the case for animal emotions but goes beyond to argue that given our understanding of the rich emotional lives of animals that we have an ethical obligation to treat our fellow animals with compassion and respect and he discusses current abuses including factory farms, medical research, and zoos. As someone who has worked on animal welfare issues and is interested in animal behavior, it's Dr. Bekoff's advocacy for animals that I find most inspiring for he is one of those rare scientists who argue that what we know imposes an ethical obligation to act. Although many scientists now accept that animals have rich emotional lives, Dr. Bekoff has been at the forefront of the movement arguing--as a scientist--for the complex emotional lives of animals. His willingness to take on the skeptics and see his fellow animals as being the rich, emotional, complex beings that they are is an inspiration to us non-scientists who work with and care for animals. Dr. Bekoff has drawn on his research as an ethologist and biologist over the years to make the case for animal emotions and he has been at the forefront of arguing for ethical treatment of animals. I have read several of his other books and am thrilled with this new book, which is one of his best.