According to the Conservative government animals can't feel empathy
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Can This Feline Behaviour Be A Basic Form Of Empathy?
- Thread starter miasa
- Start Date
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2017
- Messages
- 100
- Purraise
- 75
I'm no genius but it seems to me that all of my cat's (feral included) love and emotion for me (and their litter/house mates) is a direct reflection of what I put into those relationships.
My theory is:
An animal's love/compassion/attachment for me is a mirror image of my own emotional investment in them.
I've also noticed that the more I shower them all with love and affection the better they tend to treat each other (affection seems contagious).
It's technically possible that cats are evolving and learning and developing more advanced empathy/emotions from their interactions with humans over hundreds of years but I prefer to simplify this:
A person in a suit somewhere spouting scientific "proof" about how cats aren't really capable of complex emotions like empathy might just be seeing a mirror image of their own emotional investment in these animals.
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2017
- Messages
- 100
- Purraise
- 75
Am I the only one here who gets so annoyed thinking about how LITTLE half-wits in suits (who claim to be experts 
) know about cats/animals actual behavior that I go shopping and buy cats things?
I spent the last 2 days reaffirming my cat lady status at TJMaxx
) know about cats/animals actual behavior that I go shopping and buy cats things?I spent the last 2 days reaffirming my cat lady status at TJMaxx
Am I the only one here who gets so annoyed thinking about how LITTLE half-wits in suits (who claim to be experts
I spent the last 2 days reaffirming my cat lady status at TJMaxx
View attachment 216827 View attachment 216828
Love Sponge Bobs house!
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2017
- Messages
- 100
- Purraise
- 75
I've been singing the Spongebob song all day
The last house I bought was never touched unless I tripped on it on the way to the bathroom or I moved it to Vacuum. Then one day they rolled over it while wrestling and flattened it. It became a cat papasan chair after it was flattened. They loved it and would fight over who got to sit on top of it.
They are going in the pineapple one taking turns so I fluffed up the other house and now they like it upright. The only problem is they know how to flatten them now so when one gets jealous that another is lounging inside they just punch on the top and collapse it on the other one's head
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #26
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2017
- Messages
- 13
- Purraise
- 14
For interested members: "The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness" (pdf)
"We declare the following: “The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from
experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the
neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with
the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that
humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also
possess these neurological substrates.”
"We declare the following: “The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from
experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the
neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with
the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that
humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also
possess these neurological substrates.”
