Exploring the Inner World of Animals: Uncovering the Emotional Lives of Our Furry Friends

Kenneth L Winaker: This book is outstanding!!! The author is brilliant and compassionate.

United States on Jun 18, 2023

Rosalía Balboa: Especialista habla de la vida emocional de los demás animales. Homo sapiens sapiens se niega a ver a los individuos de otras especies tal y como son, con objeto de seguir medrando a costa de su explotación y sufrimiento.

Spain on Oct 17, 2022

Nshadow: Very nice n informative
enjoyable

India on Dec 12, 2019

A S: This is an excellent book, and then only reason I gave it four instead of five is because it wasn't... As "meaty" as I was expecting. It's an pleasant read full of amazing stories, experiences, and convincing arguments, but I was expecting something to talk a little more about the science ...

United States on Oct 11, 2018

kthdimension: As hard as it is to believe, there are *still* people out there who doubt whether animals experience emotion. For anyone who lives with a cat, dog, bird, or other furry friend there is almost certainly no question the animal experiences a range of emotions. The range of those emotions, however, is open for debate but most of us don't doubt their existence.

Bekoff opens the book by defining his field of study (cognitive ethology) and building a case for animal emotion. He also touches on anthropomorphism and how this is a useful and meaningful way to describe animal emotion even though (hard) science has occasionally derided the person who assigns "human" emotion to animal behavior. The remainder of the book presents evidence and examples of animal emotion and behavior in support of his thesis.

An unattributed quote on p.23 sums up the book well: "If I assume that animals have subjective feelings of pain, fear, hunger, and the like, and if I am mistaken in doing so, no harm will have been done; but if I assume the contrary, when in fact animals do have such feelings, then I open the way to unlimited cruelties...Animals must have the benefit of the doubt, if indeed...

United States on Oct 30, 2016

Amazon Customer: Must read for anyone interested in human non human relationships, a very important book

Australia on Dec 26, 2015

Bärchen: Ein großes Lob für dieses Buch !!!
Marc Bekoff zeigt uns hier in zahlreichen Beispielen, dass Tiere Emotionen in ihrer ganzen Bandbreite erleben und uns dies erfahrbar machen. Sie lehren uns nicht nur eine Lektion über Liebe und Empathie, sondern ermahnen uns auch,unsere gegenwärtige Beziehung zu ihnen, eine Beziehung der Dominanz und des Mißbrauchs zu überdenken. Marc Bekoff spricht über die Evolution der Emotionen, erläutert neuere, wissenschaftliche Entdeckungen von Gehirnstrukturen, die Menschen u n d Tieren gemeinsam sind. Er stellt fest, dass wir Menschen evolutionsbiologisch ebenfalls Tiere sind, unser Ursprung in der Tierwelt liegt. Und damit hat er Recht!
Beispiele folgen, die uns zeigen, dass wir Tiere in allen Bereichen dominieren, nach unseren Bedürfnissen ausnutzen und sehr oft barbarisch quälen. In seiner Zusammenfassung erinnert er uns daran, dass wir alle- Menschen u n d Tiere auf dieser Erde zusammen leben.
Wie gehen wir heute mit unserem Wissen um? Jeder von uns muß sich seiner Verantwortung stellen. Jeder Schritt in die richtige Richtung ist ein wichtiger Schritt!
Nicht zuletzt gibt es die "Goldene Regel", die besagt: " Behandle andere,...

Germany on Jun 22, 2011

Paul Stevenson: This lovely book should be in every classroom, library and home. It is a bright beacon of light along the road to better treatment of animals everywhere. Professor Bekoff shows how other animals are just like us. They share all of the same feelings and emotions that have previously been considered the sole prerogative of humans. This will come as a sobering thought for many people. However, it should be no surprise to anyone as we are all related and have merely branched out into different species and lifestyles through the process of evolution. All of us are fellow travellers on different roads through the same landscape.

For far too long 'animals' have been regarded as some sort of 'other'; something different from humans. It was a case of 'them' and 'us'. As a result other creatures have been abominably treated by man throughout history, and tragically still are. However, recent research shows that we are far more alike than we are different. We are all 'us', humans and other animals included. Other animals are just 'different kinds of us', that's all. They have minds as we do. They have personalities and all that goes with them. They have their own sense of self and...

United States on May 19, 2010

C. Johnson: Once in a while it's a joy to come across an inspiring book which deserves to be consulted time and time again. Lesley Skipper's brilliantly researched and observed "Inside Your Horse's Mind" had that effect on me, as did Lucy Rees' "The Horse's Mind". For me, this beautifully written book, by the eminent animal biologist Marc Bekoff, will be sharing pride of place on my bookshelf.

This is a study which anyone who has an interest in animal behaviour will delight in. Behaviours such as loneliness and weaving amongst elephants, bereavement of donkeys and affection shared by whales remind us that all mammals share many neuroanatomical similarities, even if we cannot be sure that they experience emotion in the same way.

The book might be seen as a series of self-contained essays, tackling topics such as what animals feel and ethical questions about how we respond to what we know about animal emotion. Bekoff doesn't pretend to know the answers, but he challenges fellow scientists to use common sense alongside their quest for the perfect `scientific method' and to stop seeing animals as little more than moving objects. He argues that anecdotes gathered from repeated...

United Kingdom on Jul 28, 2008

Virginia Bowen: Marc Bekoff has rattled more than a few cages in his long career as a cognitive ethologist, but that does not make what he has to say any less true. This book summarizes the case for recognizing the similarities we share with our non-human mammalian companions, and it does so with flair, as well as attention to scientific detail.

For scientists or simply science buffs, this book has plenty to satisfy, but it's not just for them. This book is more for the average American who has always sensed the truths of non-human emotional lives (or maybe even has not), but is curious about the science behind the facts.

I have long been fond of saying "a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain, whether it belongs to you, your cat or my horse." Marc Bekoff makes this same statement with much more clarity and deeper understanding.

This book should leave you with a greater respect for the lives of the non-humans we share this planet with, and a deeper understanding of the ways our experiences here are the same, rather than focusing on what's different. It turns out the similarities are greater than the differences!

But all the science aside, this is...

United States on Sep 13, 2007