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Posted: 6th October 2017

Animals experience emotionally rich lives
Jenna Kiddie speaking at the BVNA Congress in Telford.
There is an increased interest in the 'quality of life' of our veterinary patients; particularly their 'feelings' as affected by their ability to interact freely with their environment. 

"Ultimately, quality of life is a balance between positive and negative factors impinging on the opportunities for normal behavioural expressions," said Jenna Kiddie, addressing the subject of 'Normal behaviour: new insights and implications for welfare' at the BVNA Congress in Telford today.

"What we really want do is to replace negative states with positive states," she said.

Do animals feel emotion? Jenna suggested that there was general agreement that they do; so we should move on from simply introducing measures to mitigate against – or prevent – factors that result in negative states, but rather proactively introduce things that encourage positive states.

Do animals grieve? Many animals are social animals like humans and so they probably do. Grief involves higher order affective-cognitions that promote 'intentions-to-act'. In humans, it has been shown that there is brain circuitry that links grief with physical pain – sometimes accompanied by depression – and there is some scientific evidence that this exists in primates and anecdotal accounts of its occurrence in other animals.

Common sense, therefore, suggests that if the same neurological pathways exist in other species, it is reasonable to expect that they do experience grief and it is simply a matter of time before more scientific evidence supporting this is collected.

A survey of people in Australia revealed that two-thirds of them believed that some animals could experience grief.

When a pet animal is separated from a close companion through death, it is useful to maintain its routine and to engage in exercise together because this releases endorphins. It is not always a good idea to introduce another pet to replace the one that has gone, especially cats. Animals are individuals and this must always be a primary consideration because this will be reflected in their interactions with other animals.

There is scientific evidence that dogs show some 'primal empathy' with humans, and different species are affected by different behaviours – either auditory triggers or visual stimulation through body language, for instance. This is particularly relevant when considering how we house and handle hospitalised animals. 



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