Animal welfare is a crucial issue because sentient animals are capable of experiencing emotions such as fear, pain, joy and contentment.
Some animal scientists specialise in investigating the range of emotions that animals can feel. The findings can help support campaigns to give sentient animals the recognition that they deserve.
Until relatively recently, some scientists thought it was impossible to scientifically study animal emotion, and anyone who did so was thought to be wrongly attributing human thoughts and feelings to animals (anthropomorphism). Recently scientists like Franz de Waal have paved the way for the study of animal emotion. They think it is important to acknowledge the similarities between humans and other animals.
Researchers borrowed techniques used in human psychology to study the emotions of sheep. Generally, we think we can tell what a human is feeling from the expression on their face – researchers therefore looked for similar clues in the position of the sheep’s ears.
Surprises, boredom and predictability all affected the ears positions of the sheep. If the sheep had certain expectations of what was going to happen next, or a sense of control over the situation, this could affect their reactions. They were found to experience fear, anger, rage, despair, boredom, disgust and happiness.
This is very similar to humans, and the researchers believe it’s safe to assume that sheep do not only show emotions but also ‘feel’ them too.
Source
Veissier, I., Boissy, A., Desire, L., Greiveldinger, L. (2009) Animals’ emotions: studies in sheep using appraisal theories. Animal Welfare: 18, pp 347-354.
