Human-Animal Relationships :: Essays Papers

Human-Animal Relationships Animals can be perceived in many different ways. While some humans consider animals to be mindless machines programmed with instinct, others view them as spiritual creatures capable of coherent thought and emotions. I feel that animals are somewhere in the middle. Although they rely heavily on instinct, the ability to feel emotions shows that their mental capacity is not far from that of a human. Since animals, especially dogs, share similar emotions as people they to make great companions. Animals do show us how to love better, because their emotions are more pure than a human's. According to Mary Lou Randour, in "What Animals Can Teach Us About Spirituality", animals are spiritual companions to humans. She tells the story of a boy who, after murdering someone, receives a dog to care for as a form of therapy. The dog comforts him, and the teenager learns to love the animal over time. The boy's pet is "healing his soul" by teaching him how to love. Dogs give their masters unconditional love, never questioning the human's orders or disciplines. I thought the story of the dog appearing in the author's backyard as her dead grandfather was rather outlandish. All of Randour's examples of how animals influence our feelings were viable aside from the disappearing ghost dog. Although their minds are not as advanced as a human's, animals are still capable of thought. Frans de Waal, author of "The Whole Animal", feels that humans and animals are closely related, through anthropomorphism. I agree with anthropomorphism, but not with anthropodenial. I also disagree with Rene Descartes' statement that animals are machines, because just as humans have different individual personalities, animals of the same species also have different behavioral characteristics. For example, some cats are arrogant and rude, while others are kind and playful, just like people. Georgia, the chimpanzee who spit water on unsuspecting visitors, did not do this out of instinct. Instinct would have told her to swallow the water.