I do think dog’s feelings can get hurt. Of course I could be anthropomorphizing. Though we are different from many other animals we are all animals in the end and I don’t think dogs are all that different from us when it comes to emotion. They do get depressed, excited, embarassed, lonely, etc. They seem to at least, but again that could just be human projection, although my gut tells me it isn’t. Anyway I totally agree that animals need to heed their instincts and we shouldn’t prevent that. Actually I think humans need to heed their instints and connections to the natural world a whole lot more too but we often seem to overlook that as well.

As for dogs, some dog owners also seem to blur the distinction between dogs and humans in ways that seem unhealthy to me. I’m thinking, for example, of people who spend small fortunes sending their dogs to high-end “spas” while they are at work, but don’t spend time taking their dogs for a decent walk on a regular basis. Just because a person might appreciate a day of pampering at a spa doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing for a dog. Or I occasionally hear people saying that they hate leaving their dog at home when they go out in the evening because the dog’s feelings might be hurt. In my opinion, hurt feelings aren’t in a dog’s emotional repertoire, but dogs are very attuned to humans’ emotional states, and a dog is likely to develop separation anxiety if its owners project human neuroses onto the dog whenever they leave home for a few hours. I think it’s fun to take dogs along to bars or to parties if they are welcome there, but if we have to leave them at home, we shouldn’t project our own human insecurities onto our dogs.

The global primate revolution may have begun. Check out this story from Thailand:

A monkey who was forced to climb palm trees by his owner took revenge by killing him with a coconut.

The dead man’s wife said that the monkey had “seemed lovable” when they bought him for £130.

wordnerd: We modern humans hold contradictory beliefs: We often treat our pets — whether they be chimpanzees or dogs — as human family members, to the detriment of the animals’ mental health; then when animals behave as they have evolved to behave, we rush to fall back on the false dichotomy between “rational” and “predictable” human beings and “wild” animals.

These stories always remind me of Nabokov’s anecdote in the afterword to Lolita about the ape who was encouraged to draw a picture by its handlers, and when it finally did, it drew the bars of its own cage.

Incidentally, if anyone feels like doing some pro bono editing, the first few sentences of the Wikipedia entry on Monkeys could use some help.

What evidence is there that humans can plan ahead? Cf. the “victims” of Madoff.