Animal emotions is a hugely debated and studied topic, at least it was 10 years ago. It was a grave sin to anthropomorphize animals that have not been properly studied when I was in school. That comment is probably a tongue in cheek comment on that
it’s more that what we perceive may be not what animals feel, especially as cute behaviors get them more attention, it’s self-reinforcing.
a cat may look like they’re having an existential crisis but may be feeling an emotion humans don’t have, like “ready to hunt but need to conserve limited energy while remaining very alert”
a dog may look happy but actually is upset and hungry so is doing the thing that gets them the treat
Animal emotions is a hugely debated and studied topic, at least it was 10 years ago. It was a grave sin to anthropomorphize animals that have not been properly studied when I was in school. That comment is probably a tongue in cheek comment on that
‘They better not have emotions or holy shit I’m gonna have [more] nightmares about what we did to those dogs/rats/monkeys’
it’s more that what we perceive may be not what animals feel, especially as cute behaviors get them more attention, it’s self-reinforcing.
a cat may look like they’re having an existential crisis but may be feeling an emotion humans don’t have, like “ready to hunt but need to conserve limited energy while remaining very alert”
a dog may look happy but actually is upset and hungry so is doing the thing that gets them the treat