Do Animals Feel Compassion?
I was reading in the BellaOnline Forums about whether dogs instinctively know someone is dying. People were commenting that dogs will lie beside a dog who is dying, or a person in a nursing home, and simply BE with them when death is coming.
I think animals have it right and they instinctively know a few important things - you can’t change when it’s someone’s time to go, and that no one should have to die alone. They give the comfort of their bodies and presence to the dying.
It’s the same thing as a predatory mother animal allowing a baby prey animal of another species to nurse from her…in the spaces near life and death, comfort comes before aggression.
I do think compassion, love and comfort are our natural state. In times of stress and competition for resources, strife/aggression emerge…but overall nature seems to prefer everything finding its own niche. This is how lions coexist with the Serengeti herds most of the time - when they are not feeding, they just hang out with all the other animals.
It’s a complex topic, as some people do not ascribe emotions to animals, considering them in a more Cartesian light. Personally, I no more consider animals brute ‘machines’ than I do myself. Why would a dolphin save a human? Why would a gorilla cradle a lost kitten? Why would my dog, not hungry for the moment for food, look at me with eyes I interpret as sending me love and adoration? My dogs come to me when I cry, are lonely when I am not with them. If it’s all due to the scrabble for resources, then so is my own existence.
Thoughts?
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My dogs know when someone in the family is not feeling well, they want to stay close to them. If one of the dogs isn’t well the other Will Not be very far. (ten feet max, but usually like they are tied together) They sense things that we have no clue about.
sometimes i feel that animal does feel compassion
Actualy not a bad thought, I remember my dog always used to bark like half an hour before a thunderstorm started. I personally believe that dogs are more susceptible (maybe through hearing) to negative frequenties. It’s sometimes like they can sense your deepest emotions.
i like to believe that all animals feel compassion. I mean, come on..anybody who’s been around them long enough will recognize it. Dogs, especially, feel compassion.
Do youmans feel compassion? Have not seen much of that today. Animals are better than humans all around .The rest have to deal with an oversized brain which makes us the enemy of the earth
Absolutely 100% YES. They are also extremely attuned to senses, paranormal in some ways, just below our level in other ways. They seem to know when someone is sick, even with the person not knowing. They have such a compassionate heart, most of them. There are mean animals just like mean people, or those that just don’t care. But they still sense it, imo. My cats are not only compassionate to me but also to eachother.
I agree with all of you…Humans are the ones who sometimes lack compassion. It just doesn’t say much for us when in the US we can barely care for our old or ill folks.
Other mammals instinctively seem to try to care for someone who is sad or ill. My dogs won’t leave my side when I am in sorrow over something, or freaked out in some way. Frodo tries to lick my tears away. If I have a friend visiting who is sad, he knows that too, and tries to provide comfort. And no one has to teach them this.
i think that animals are really intelligant and they know things they actually know more than we think they do when one of their family members are not feeling their self they can sence it straight away.
Highly doubtful how much we want to believe it.