Domestic cats are harder to read than domestic dogs

Although I can't find the actual study, the Mail Online reports on a study led by Prof Daniel Mills from the University of Lincoln, UK which explores how cat and dog owners recognise the emotions of their companion animals through their expressions. The study asked 438 pet owners to state whether their dog or cat displayed a list of 22 different emotions from disappointment, frustration to sadness and joy.

Frustrated cat? The facial expression is perfect for a frustrated cat showing anger. But we know how a feline's facial expression can mislead us. Often it is due to the cat's anatomy e.g. Grumpy Cat. I am yet to be completely convinced that domestic cats can feel the emotion of frustration. I think they find a way around it by substituting what frustrates them with something else.

Unsurprisingly, dog owners were better able to recognise their companion animal's emotions than cat owners. I don't think this study really advances our knowledge of cats and dogs that much because we know that cats are less facially expressive than dogs because they are essentially a solitary animal whereas dogs are a pack animal looking up to their alpha male leader for guidance and interacting with other members of the pack which requires communication including body language which in turn includes facial expressions.

In the study, on average, 65% of dog owners compared to 58% of cat owners believed that their companion animal can express a certain emotion.

Based on the study's findings, dogs are more able to express subtle emotions such as guilt and empathy. There probably has to be a word of warning here in that sometimes dog owners project their feelings onto their dog companion and believe something which doesn't actually exist.

It appears that, according to cat owners, cats excel at demonstrating anger! Around 85% of cat owners said that their cat can express anger compared to less than 60% of dog owners. Comment: there may be a misconception here. It may be that people are not relating to their cats properly and are inadvertently provoking them into being defensively aggressive perhaps. This might encourage cat owners to regard their cat as demonstrating anger more commonly than dogs do so with their owners. It is not uncommon, for example, for people to pet their cats too much or in a way which can cause scratches or bites. This may colour their perception of their cat's aggressive nature when the root cause of the issue is how people interact with their companion cat.

Another factor which coloured the study findings would be that cats are less predisposed to looking directly at their owner whereas dogs are more likely to do this as they look for guidance from their alpha male leader which would be the human owner.

In fact, it is said that people should not stare at their cat because they find it intimidating. That is not entirely true nowadays because domestic cats are very well integrated into the human environment but it is probably fair to say that cats are less likely to look into the eyes of their human owner than pet dogs which would mean that the owner is less likely to spot facial expressions indicating an underlying emotion.

Prof Daniel Mills said, "When cats turn on their owners and scratch them, it can be because owners miss subtle signs suggesting it is time to stop touching or patching them. So, it's important to understand our pets, but these results suggest we may not be as in tune with cats as we are with dogs. This could be because dogs may have been bred to have more expressive faces than cats."

He adds, "But unfortunately we still don't know whether cats and dogs generally show different emotions, or whether people project more emotions onto dogs and cats, because we often work more closely with dogs so need better communication."

The research is published in the journal Animals. The researchers questioned people who had lived with their pets for at least two years and therefore knew them well. They asked the owners whether they had seen six central animal emotions in their companion animal: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. And they asked them how they were expressed through facial expressions and general posture and eye contact.

The owners said that they were better able to recognise anxiety, boredom, confusion, and the, frustration, guilt, shame, pain and positive anticipation in dogs compared to cats.

Blind black cat glued to gray cat companion for guidance

This is a stunningly beautiful little video for me because of the closeness of the bond and support given. It contains so much that is human-like. The assistance of one cat given to another who's disabled. That is a human characteristic - for some. And the mutual support is very typical of human behavior.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

And it is just great to see cats in such a strong relationship. It is like love. Maybe true love in the truest sense. 

It is not uncommon to see cats who are very friendly with each other. However, this is friendship maxed out. It is more than simple friendship. It is a very close bond. It is about chemistry between the two. 

Does the guiding cat get as much out of the friendship as the blind black cat? Is the guide cat consciously doing some altruistic? Or is it about mutual support? 

If anyone thinks cats don't have feelings; think again please. In many ways they are similar to humans. And yet we must always respect them as cats. If we try and interact with cats as little humans the relationship may go wrong or it won't be as good as it can be.

The video at the top of the page is uploaded to Google servers so God willing it will not disappear over time. Enjoy. 

CLICK FOR WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF FELINE FRIENDSHIP?

This is the video again. It is not playing properly.

Are cats sentient beings?

For me, cats are sentient beings and I think it's obvious that they are but I cannot say the same for everybody else. Some people think that the definition of sentience is rather vague and therefore we don't know whether cats are sentient beings. However, the definition of "sentience" is not vague because it means an animal that has feelings and by now all of us should realise that cats can have feelings. We know that cats have emotions. What we are not sure about is whether they can experience the higher emotions such as grief and shame etc..

Are cats sentient beings? Yes, of course.

I don't think cats can feel the higher emotions because in order to feel higher emotions an animal has to be self-aware and I don't believe that, at this juncture, we can say with conviction that cats are self-aware or self-conscious. It is work in progress and I think the outcome will be, no. But it doesn't stop cats having feelings. It does not take an awful lot of personal research either on the Internet or in direct contact with your cat to figure out that they have feelings.

Perhaps there was a time, about 50 years ago or more when a lot of people were unsure if animals, in general, even felt pain. This seems remarkable now. There has been an awakening both about animal welfare and the sentience of animals. In fact, the latter precedes the former because as soon as you comprehend that animals are sentient beings you automatically are taken down the route of improved animal welfare.

The question in the title is the kind of question that you might have asked about 40 years ago. But today, in 2021, it is a given, by which I mean it is an accepted premise in any discussion about animals and, in this instance cats, that they are sentient beings.

We can see them being happy and content and expressing it through purring. We can see them being stressed and anxious when going to the veterinarian, for example. In fact, there are many and various situations under which they can feel anxious. It is apparent by their demeanour and body language. We can see them displaying affection towards us and towards other animals. There are a countless number of videos on YouTube of cats and dogs showing affection for each other. And the same goes for the cat-to-cat friendships.

The classic feline head-butt is an expression of affection and when you come home your cat rubs against your legs in an act of scent exchange. This is an act of friendship. When two cats meet each other in friendship they have their tails up in a vertical position and they touch noses. This is a friendly feline greeting. It is body language which tells us that cats have emotions. You can't experience the feeling of friendship without having the capacity to have an emotion.

Aggression is based on the emotion of anger. Often domestic gas display defensive aggression even with their owner. For instance, they display it when defending their territory which we call a 'home range'.

Some people would even say, contrary to what I have said, that cats can sometimes feel the higher emotions such as grief. There are videos on the Internet of cats staying at the burial site of their previous owner and staying there for a very long time, by which I mean days. Some people have taken that to mean these cats are experiencing grief.

In the UK, the British government, right now, is rolling out some new animal welfare laws all of which are based upon the fact that animals are sentient beings. They are rolling out an Action Plan \For Animal Welfare. The government is able to do this because they are now free of European Union regulations and diktats. This allows Britain to go down a path of improving animal rights and welfare beyond that which is protected by law in the European Union. And Defra has produced an excellent little video (see below), which they have tweeted on animals having feelings and animal sentience. It is central to the improvement of animal welfare to recognise in law that animals have feelings.

So, this cannot just be about domestic and feral cats. It is about all animals including wild animals and livestock. People treat livestock like nuts and bolts but when you see a cow becoming great friends with a cat suddenly the word 'livestock' seems inappropriate. The cow becomes a sentient being, a pleasant and loving domesticated animal. That's how we should relate to them.

I have written an article about animal sentience and animal laws in relation to the objectives of the British government which you can read by clicking on this link. And if you click on this link you can see the Defra tweet.