***** Tell that to somebody who has no feelings. They may buy it but I don't.

***** Humans are emotional, even if they think logically, they act on emotion.

007MrYang I agree. The exception to the rule would be fictional characters (Stannis Baratheon is the first that comes to my mind).

That poor horse, no right to his own life, enslaved into "USE" by humans, and have his spirit broken. So sad there was not the means to retire him properly. That is where the greed of the owner becomes evident, as the animal is treated as property instead of someone with a right to their own life.

My horse does not trust most humans because one night a bunch of people thought it would be funny to go into his area ( He was being kept in the arena because of construction at the time) and chase him around with a whip. I couldn't get anywhere near him for two weeks. Then we found the footage and I figured it out.They had forcefully hit him with the whip a few times. It took a very long time for him to trust anyone again. I am the only person who can go near him without worrying about him kicking/biting me. It's heartbreaking because he truly is a loving horse... he's just traumatized.

That must be why I rock back and forth in my chair while I'm trapped in my cubicle for 10 hours a day.

I'm a creationist (Christian) but I have no problem with these ideas. It's like how people used to think it's bad or blasphemy or whatever to say the Earth is not the center of the universe for some reason - they're linking things that don't have to be linked. I'm 26, I remember when I was a kid this was kind of a "thing", you know - do animals have emotions. It's baffling to me that it was.

Yes it is. We all are corpses so we all have a mass. But dogs' and cats' brains are not like ours. And as it is difficult to know how animals think or feel, we can't assume they feel anger or anxiety or pleasure without anthropomorphism, because we have no proof that they have the neurological "component" to feel such as these things as we do with our human brain. Wagging the tail is not a proof that the doggo is happy. We're all sure about the fact that a dog is happy when it is wagging. We all feel it, and I have no doubt about that. But science needs proofs. Of course, studies shows that levels of oxytocin or dopamine changes as it changes for us, so they may be feel this or that. But when you look at animal and assume their thoughts, unless it is "proven" scientificaly, it is anthropomorphism. That's not bad at all. As she said in the video, it leads to empathy. And begining with anthropomorphism don't mean that the hypothesis is false.

@@DTohruD I don't think anybody is saying that a dog has the same brain, but instead a similar parasympathetic nervous system. In fact, some of the best therapy for human trauma survivors was developed by Dr. Peter Levine by watching the reaction of animals in the wild when under traumatic stress, and how they release that stress through physical reactions. Once a polar bear that had been chased by helicopters, and tranquilized for scientific purposes, when he comes out of the drug fog, he will growl, shake, nip at the air, and simulate a running motion. The animal disallowed from completing this outburst, shows something similar to PTSD in humans. If you wonder why your dog goes crazy after the bath, assuming your dog hates the bath as much as mine, it is not because he feels very clean and happy, and that idea is anthropomorphizing. We think, Oh look! Buster feels so much better now that he is clean. No. The dog's crazy running around and acting erratic is his outlet. The dog is simply "running off" the stress from being captive in the bathtub. If you encourage that, even offering a toy that the dog can bite and tug, the dog will get over it faster. The more you allow the dog to bite at something, and get the stress out of their system, the faster the crazy behavior ends. Human trauma is often caused by situations that the person feels is inescapable. Same with animals. Saying something is anthropomorphizing unless it is scientifically proven begs the question , "what qualifies as a scientific proof?" When they discovered that a herd of elephants showed signs of ongoing grief and discontent when a herd member died and they were not allowed to properly mourn, but then once the bones were brought in for the herd to mourn over, everything went back to balance, is that enough? When a troop of chimps were found to travel in a group outside their area to kill and torment another troop that had killed one of their own, does that act as proof? When a dolphin spends days toting around her dead baby, what else could you conclude than that she feels grief? It used to be trendy to counter the idea that we humans project ourselves onto the animals around us. Even Jane Goodall suggested that chimps don't love the way we love, and it was an insult to think they did. That is outdated information. Chimps take revenge. Dolphins help others, even humans that are stranded in the ocean. Orcas have never attacked a human in the wild (yes, you could say we taste bad, but a hungry animal is a hungry animal), elephants, lions, and even crows remember the people who do them harm, and often have the same reaction that we would have. Dogs have sat on the grave of their beloved owner for years. Saying they don't feel and love on our level is now an insult. One night, after dark at the beach, I had my headphones on, and bent down to tie my shoe at the grassy knoll on top of a cliff. My Belgian Malinois pawed at me as I bent down, and I was a little pissed that she was so naughty. She is rarely on a leash and very well-trained, which meant she knew better than to paw at me like that. I scolded her, and continued to tie my shoe, only to be hit in the face with the sprinkler. All I could think was my pup saying, "I tried to tell you." Why did she do that? How did she even know to try to warn me. That was not the first time she warned me and I didn't listen. But it was the last. If this dog doesn't show the traits of loyalty, devotion, and care, I don't know anybody who does. Animals not only feel what we feel, I actually believe they are better at it than we are. No dog gets into a closed space with a person he feels is bad. But we do. We do it all the time. If anything they are more pure in their feelings than we are. Maybe simpler. But in a way, so much better.

THANK YOU

I guess what I'm trying to say is that so often we look at other thriving humans for inspiration to solve our problems. I'm now convinced that looking at animals' approach to similar problems can sometimes be better. As for domesticated animals having issues, perhaps they can be coached by other animals or receive some sort of counseling and reassurance from them.

We don't 'force' dogs into captivity. The dog's natural habitat is the human household. They are domesticated.

Thomas Ziemann domesticated means made used to a house. They are definitely the animals who suffer less the captivity but still they need to go out several times a day. I'm not saying we shouldn't keep them. I'm saying that, as we have taken their freedom, it's our responsibility to make ALL we can to make them happy. :)

You really understood nothing of the main points of this talk, did you?

Thomas Ziemann Natural Habitat is a human household? Waaaaat?!

Zaete0chan ?

inglishmoviesxxx

***** You can have what YOU BELIEVE TO BE a spiritual connection. But others cannot see and measure this connection, so it remains 'personally spiritual'.

you don't consider hallucinations or delusions or sterotypies pathologic then?

The reason I put "mental illness" under quotes was that I was referring to these "psychological conditions" that are rated as "social illnesses", and not actual biological brain defects that cause clear malfunctioning of the individual despite the social rules he is within.. For example, schizophrenics, people who actually hear voices, see things that are not there, have brain malfunctioning that makes them "mentally ill", but a person with ADHD may simply be someone fit for hyperactive types of work (many artists or athletes claim they were diagnosed with ADHD when kids). Many people are "depressive" because they're forced to live with people they actually don't like. The difference from a person with OCD and a collector may be only how much money they have, or even the type of work (socially speaking) they're expected to be executing (many "very prolific" workers are actually people with OCD who just happened to devout their obsessive and compulsive behavior towards something that people find valuable).

But many or all psychiatric illnesses have a biological origin, or at least organic symptoms. The problem in psychiatry is to tell the difference between an hyperactive child with a problem in his brain, or if he's just a restless kid.

Robin Conkel-hAnnan exactly what I think, these animals are living in un-natural surroundings. Her Dog has issues, she needs to talk to Cesar Millan.

Robin Conkel-hAnnan All sentient beings are capable of mental illness but any slave is more likely to have them for obvious reasons

Robin Conkel-hAnnan I'm sure humans and more precisely our dysfunctional individuals have a disruptive effect. This has less to do with the actions and more to do with the mental state of the person I believe. It is because intent has a physical affect that a person who is suffering from severe panic dis-order will cause distress to their pets anxiety. The physical affect of intent is what a dog uses when he knows you plan to bathe him without you showing anything physical to gauge. Our Chow would gobble down food like a horse, we often tossed deli meat or hot dogs to him and watch him breathe in the food like air. But when there was a tiny pill stuffed in the wiener her would inherently know that particular piece had something he didn't want. That ole poochie dog would nibble so delicately and then spit out the pill. I would approach him 1000 times and rough house with him which included hugging his torso and rolling on the ground, I always let him win btw. But if I approached him with the intent to bathe him there was no way to catch him or get close without a substantial food bribe. I am very smart and would try not to think about it or just act so goofy there could be no physical connection to bathing but he knew the situation as much as he knew it was day or night as there was no wavering on his part. But are we sure that an animal that is repeatedly acting a certain way is doing it with mental distress? If another being watched someone do hours martial arts training without knowledge of his purpose it would look like OCD.

Darren Pellichino animals in captivity, eg: zoos, seaword, display distressed behavior....so in those instances, they are not going to get what they need to feel safe and better....dogs/cats on the other hand, can be taught out of the behavior.....if the owner cares enough. Unlike this woman in the video...pills and things like that are a temp fix, in the end ppl need to put the time in to help there pets with issues.

TheSpaceTiger I can sorta understand what you mean by using slave to describe animals that are bought and sold. And in a few cases like pen kept hunting beagles or pen kept guard dogs the term slave fits the treatment. But only a few cases because most animal family members are free to do what they want all day and night. The people and the pets view each other with love and treat one another like a family in most homes around the world. Outside cats are allowed to choose where they want to live and some have a few families they visit throughout the day, depending on the total comfort level of their original home and of course the personality of the cat. Where I see the biggest concern is with dogs and the repercussions caused by thousands of years of breeding out their aggressiveness. The aggressive nature of animals is tied into the animals confidence which is why a dog seeks fulfillment from outside of himself. And the reason you can beat and beat a dog and still have him want your love and companionship. The animal if healthy minded should think of self preservation which is tied to aggressiveness. Defending yourself from an outside threat.

The funny thing is that because we eat cows and sheep etc they are some of the most biologically successful animals around

RockyJohn Sadler And elephants!

Helder Seba Yes it ticks me off too. Humans often laugh as a sign of anxiety though and in general humans do not like to view animals as equals, they have trouble viewing other humans as equals, because that means feeling a lot of emotions and that's always tough. It's called distancing, same thing murderers experience - they stop seeing another human as a person,and see them as an object because you can't hurt someone you empathize with. I've lost a cat and a dog to cancer in the beginning of this year and my other cat had a really severe depression but I was the only one noticing. To the rest of the family he was just "a cat' and "oh he's fine". Then when at age 18 I had severe depression that almost ended in suicide people round me thought that I was "just fine too". We are all too busy running around accomplishing things not realising we are losing the only thing worth achiving - connection.

RIGHT

Lemon Tree life is more complicated than "natural selection". It's very easy to understand how tempting it is to reduce life to natural selection where the weakets dies - no need to have emotions, no need to care for anyone. But that weakest can be your child, that weakest can be you because our health is so fleating. And the so called weakest often possess wisdom that the healthy do not. And we all die in the end, no matter what, so it's not about winning the "selection" race. It's about expanding our heart.

frodo beggins I didn't say it was about anything lol. Was just wondering about this topic. What would happen to all these mentally unstable beings, human or not, in an environment sans all of our security? I'm mentally unstable myself, frequently depressed, aspergers, and to top it all of I'm a digital artist so I am COMPLETELY dependent on society staying as it is. If I were born 10000 years ago I would die fairly early on.

Lemon Tree If you were born 10000 years ago you'd definetely die early on simply because human life span was so much shorter in general, but not because of depression or aspergers. In fact you have no idea if you would be depressed at all because people lived by manual labor and manual labor is great for relieving depression. They also got more sleep, compared themselves less, and were closer to nature. And such conditions as aspergers were not much of a problem because people worked manually and if a person was physically strong they were valuable. If they were weak they were cared for. Of course sometimes bad things happened too but mean people always existed. Same way our society doesn't provide all that much security and care for mentally sick. You may be lucky and so you can think society is so very secure but I work with animalshelter and the amount of abuse I see is staggering. Mental institutions are also notorious for abuse. Every minute somewhere in the world a child dies because of abuse. The world is far from secure.

frodo beggins Yeah but I'm speculating what natural elements would do to a weaker human like myself. I don't care about human factors like abuse, that's artificial selection. I mean like what if I were born in the middle of nowhere 10000 years ago, my family dies and I'm alone? If that were to happen, I would die. If that were to happen now? I would be able to live quite easily (albeit mentally scarred).

Lemon Tree siad the most telling dynamic of todays issues. We are seeing a huge amount of mental weakness in our populations which is derived from the ease of living. With a guarantee of food and shelter laziness seeps into personality traits like a slow rot. Our society gears allow the service of our populations to employ nearly all people thus having more work the more people exist resulting in food and shelter for nearly all. Which eventually evolves into larger populations allowed to receive food and shelter for simply being born. This is when you start to loose the mental strength needed to wake up at 4am every morning to work. You also see the degradation of the core family grow and the weakening of self control needed to be courteous. Mentally or call it emotionally humans are weakening as we make life easier. Just look at the way internet comment sections have become. That is because no one has any danger associated with their comments, and it has devolved. An animal being around these mental weaknesses will pick up some of the traits because his mental radar will be affected by proximity.

Amen

I guess laughter can irritate or please you. I like laughter, but I'm not taking it personally. I mean, the animals studied aren't in the audience listening, so what's the difference?

I don't think they are laughing because they find it funny. It's a way of forming a connection or bond with the presenter.

Cuz humans are worth more than Humans

I think people often laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but as more people have had pets over the years and have come to see animals as people I think it's more widely accepted that animals have mental illness and feel things like humans. As such, what is funny and absurd changes over time.

Oh they'd still laugh if it were humans. OCD is a disorder that is frequently made fun of.

you don't have to be vegan to understand that animals are capable of possessing 'human' traits and deserve better lives than the abuses humans do to them

Why can't she focus on animals. I have clinical depression and I'm interested in this presentation. We are all the same. Maybe we can learn from them? I take animals as inspirantion. They have strong will of life.

@@GSatiFan I disagree somewhat with the premise that we should be pumping them full of chemical to alter their minds like we do with humans, instead of fixing the actual problems that cause the distress in the first place..

Cesar Milan won´t help ANY dog in a good way. He works with fear and pain. There are way better dog trainers and psychologists than Mr. Milan. Please inform yourself better :-)

dog, if you didnt learn something great and informative from that ted talk, you should either go home or back to school.

stillblazzinit meow!

You suck. If you got nothing from this, you clearly should head to buzz feed. And stay there.