Animals

  A Change of Heart about Animals seemed pretty self explanatory to me because of the fact that I have a pet and I know for a fact that my dog has emotions.  In the article, it says that scientists are finding that animals are more like us than we imagined, but even without a dog, I still knew that.  The article also explains how they can feel pain, suffer, and experience stress, affection, excitement, and also love.  I don't know if it's just me, but I think that it was pretty much common sense that they have emotions and can feel.  If a dog were to get their foot ran over, they will cry really hard because of the pain.  Dogs also will always love their main owner if that person has taken care of them since close to birth.  I know that this is supposed to be about every animal, but I feel like if a dog is capable of these feelings, then any other animal should be as well.  Excluding all of the very little animals, of course.  I heard this one story about a gorilla that learned sign language that was obviously very intelligent and she would watch a movie over and over again and after a while, the gorilla would know all of the sad parts and say in sign language "I don't like this part." and then would cry after.  Also, this gorilla had a pet cat and when they told the gorilla that his pet cat died, she was very upset and became depressed for a few weeks and just didn't want to talk to anymore because of how sad she was.  And even house pets can be an example on how they can feel sadness because when they don't get attention, they usually cry a lot.  I just feel like since most animals are capable of feeling the same kinds of emotions as humans, why shouldn't they have rights?