Dogs (and Cats) Can Love

[moonshaz]

Neurochemical research has shown that the hormone released when people are in love is released in animals in the same intimate circumstances

Comments

[siren]

DUH. Any pet owner knows that. It doesn't take a scientist. :p

[layweed]

seriously

[zinnia_rose]

Yep. It's like those studies that proved that baby monkeys who were taken away from their mothers have higher stress hormone levels than monkeys who stayed with their mothers. Um...no shit?

[castalianspring]

Yes, it does. It's always good to have scientific evidence for things "everyone knows", especially since sometimes things accepted as fact aren't actually true. It's great that they studied this, so don't devalue the science.

[tcpip]

Does take a scientist to find the hormone though.. :)

(I for one want to engage in rat-advocacy for most empathic animal companion)

[wuvvumsoc]

I own pets and I didn't really want to make this assumption without evidence. There was a book I read called Animals in Translation that discussed about our tendencies to anthromorphisize animals and assign human thoughts and motives to them when they don't think in the same way we do.

I think it's nice to see that cats and dogs can love. I wouldn't be upset if a certain animal can't love, especially when we take in pets like reptiles, fish and bugs. Those animals might not love you but you can still appreciate them.

Edit: Then again anthromorphizing seems to be more like "The animal is thinking this because of this" and "The animal feels this way because of this." I can totally get behind animals having emotions and I don't doubt it, but it's also good to have some science to confirm it.