The Emotional Lives of Companion Animals: Attachment and Subjective Claims by Owners of Cats and Dogs

Abstract

There is a growing body of scientific evidence supporting the existence of emotions in nonhuman animals. Companion-animal owners show a strong connection and attachment to their animals and readily assign emotions to them. In this paper we present information on how the attachment level of companion-animal owners correlates with their attribution of emotions to their companion cat or dog and their attribution of mirrored emotions. The results of an online questionnaire, completed by 1,023 Dutch-speaking cat and/or dog owners (mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium), suggest that owners attribute several emotions to their pets. Respondents attributed all posited basic (anger, joy [happiness], fear, surprise, disgust, and sadness) and complex (shame, jealousy, disappointment, and compassion) emotions to their companion animals, with a general trend toward basic emotions (with the exception of sadness) being more commonly attributed than complex emotions. All pet owners showed strong attachment to their companion animal(s), with the degree of attachment (of both cat and dog owners) varying significantly with education level and gender. Owners who ascribed human characteristics to their dog or cat also scored higher on the Pet Bonding Scale (PBS). Finally, owners who found it pleasant to pet their dog or cat had a higher average PBS score than those who did not like to do so. The relationship between owners' attributions of mirrored emotions and the degree of attachment to dogs was significant for all emotions, whilst for cats this relationship was significant only for joy, sadness, surprise, shame, disappointment, and compassion.

How Ethical Ideologies Relate to Public Attitudes toward Animals: The Dutch Case

“…Our results also demonstrate that respondents who owned a dog as their companion animal showed more concern for animal welfare. This result parallels a recent study by Martens et al (2016), which demonstrated a strong attachment between companion dogs and their owners, suggesting that pet (in particular dog) ownership is an important predictor of public attitudes toward animals.…”

“…We also confirmed that women show greater concern for animals than men (Bègue & Laine, 2017;Erlanger & Tsytsarev, 2012;Martens et al, 2016). This may be because women are socialized from birth in a caring and nurturing role, while men are brought up to be more utilitarian (Herzog, Betchart, & Pittman, 1991).…”

“…Therefore, it is plausible that some Chinese people think there are no universal principles regarding specific animal species, such as laboratory animals. Generally speaking, most people from developed countries are more aware of animal welfare and show great concern for animals (Friedmann, 2013;Martens et al, 2016;Pifer et al, 1994). Their attitudes toward animals may stem from their concern for animal welfare, rather than from a cost-benefit analysis.…”

“…Shimizu, & Pifer, 1994), age (Ascione, 1992;Kavanagh, Signal, & Taylor, 2013;Kellert, 1985), household income (Signal & Taylor, 2006), humane education (Ascione & Weber, 1996;Furnham, McManus, & Scott, 2003;Nicoll, Trifone, & Samuels, 2008), pet ownership (Driscoll, 1992;Martens, Enders-Slegers, & Walker, 2016;Serpell, 1996), religion (Bowd & Bowd, 1989;Driscoll, 1992;Gilhus, 2006), as well as geographic region (Phillips et al, 2012;Pifer et al, 1994). However, research into the correlation between public attitudes toward animals and ethical ideologies is still in its infancy and needs further investigation (Bègue & Laine, 2017).…”

“…Additionally, as Dutch people have a greater awareness of animal welfare than Chinese people, and this high awareness in the Netherlands could explain the strong link between ideologies and attitudes toward animals, we examined whether the correlation between ethical ideologies and attitudes toward animals differed between Dutch and Chinese people, by utilizing the same questionnaire that was used in China (Su & Martens, 2017). Religion (Bowd & Bowd, 1989;Driscoll, 1992;Gilhus, 2006), pet ownership (Costa, Guagliumi, Cannas, Minero, & Palestrini, 2014;Martens et al, 2016) and meat consumption (Kenyon & Barker, 1998;Loughnan, Haslam, & Bastian, 2010;Povey, Wellens, & Conner, 2001) have been demonstrated to be important factors in attitudes toward animals. In order to verify the reliability of these reports, we investigated whether such variables also relate to attitudes toward animals among Dutch people.…”