In the oral training class last week, we read an essay that talked about whether animals have thoughts and feelings. After reading the essay, I think that the author did not agree that animals have feelings. He thought that animals had no ability to form advanced feelings and thoughts since they have no language. If you know the Garrett model for speech production (you can read it here), you will understand why the author had this opinion, and you would probably think he was right. In my opinion, however, even though the animals have no language, we cannot be sure that they have no advanced thoughts or feelings. There are too many things that can prevent animals from developing their own “languages”. We cannot deny all of their basic abilities just because they haven’t shown any production at the end of the speech production process. I think animals do have advanced thoughts and feelings since they can do advanced behaviors like showing grief for companions (griefing, even burial), caring others (even cross species)……etc. Since the essay mentioned sympathy, I will use the video below as my support.
https://www.facebook.com/uniladmag/videos/2699885986701110/
As you can see, the hippos came and helped the tiny duck when they saw it failed to climb up and get out of the pool. This shows that the hippos understand what the duck tried to do and offered their help voluntarily. I think this is the perfect example of animals showing sympathy, especially this one is cross-species.
Video Source: UNILAD, Facebook.