Can Animals Experience Happiness?

[Mathematician]

I don't know... I like it when women caress me gently regardless of the day, and they're quite a loony and foreign species.

 

[Micle Thomson]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Yes, i agree with Madhuri :bow: that animals have the sense of happiness and sadness, and it interesting that you shared here your experience with parrots. Really they shows their depression, excitement with an extraordinary action.[/FONT]

 

[atanu]

Complex animals can certainly experience fear, pain, and suffering to various extents, but do you think they can experience happiness and pleasure?

Sometimes I worry whether animals have a lopsided ability to experience happiness and suffering. Animals can experience tremendous cruelty by people or in the wild, but it's harder to tell whether they can experience a strong positive sense of well-being as well.

I only have a moderate amount of experience with animals. I subjectively observe that dogs, cats, and birds seem to experience something akin to pleasure or happiness. They enjoy being pet, and seem to experience the emotion of excitement. But what about other animals? What do you think?

Cats are classy and often appear smug but I have definitely seen dogs smile. I have also seen how young animals, including bears tease each other and derive pleasure/joy etc. The senior animals however tend to become more sombre but that is how we humans are as well.

That all living beings have some form or other of sexual reproduction, suggests that happiness is the substratum of existence itself.

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