Do Animals Have Emotions?

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says “in blue‘s large brown eyes there was a new look… the look of disgust with human beings… the look of hatred… it gave him the look of a beast… he had put up a barrier within to protect himself from further violence” (102). The women in those marriages probably felt the same way Blue did, and stood up against their husbands as Blue disassociated himself with humans to prevent further manipulation.

If you were to harm a person that person would not trust you, and would most likely stay away from you and the same is with any animal after they lose trust in you they have their own fears as to what could happen. They too most likely wonder “what‘s next” or feel like they must protect themselves. Walker poses the question “What else are they going to express?”(100), thinking of an answer to this question makes you realize that if animals were emotionless and lacked superior brainpower they would not be doing anything special. They would simply survive with no interaction, because interaction has emotional ties to it. Since we know that animals do not act or behave the way they do because they are bonafide geniuses, it is safe to assume they do have emotions and their emotions show through their connections and interactions with humans as well as other animals.

Walker used many scenarios to show Blues emotions. She showed similarities between Blue’s reaction to relative human situations and was able to prove great resemblances with animal reaction and human reaction. Blue showed anger, resentment, fear, loneliness, and happiness in the same way we as humans do. If Blue did not have emotions his behavior would remain unchanged. If animals lacked emotions they would not interact the way they do with each other as well as other beings. If you believe animals do not have emotions then you must ask yourself some serious questions. How do you explain their mating process, at some point the animals must feel the need to reproduce. What about some animals overprotective behavior of their young is that not some display of an emotion? If animals do not have emotions I pose the same question as Walker: “What else are they to express?”

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