Do pets have emotions?

A pet (or companion animal) is an animal kept for a person's company, as opposed to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals and sport animals which are kept for economic reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their attractive appearances and their loyal or playful personalities. Their pedigree may also be a factor.Emotions, often called feelings, include experiences such as love, hate, anger, trust, joy, panic, fear, and grief. Emotions are related to, but different from, mood. Emotions are specific reactions to a particular event that are usually of fairly short duration. Mood is a more general feeling such as happiness, sadness, frustration, contentment, or anxiety that lasts for a longer time.

In 350 B.C., Aristotle found evidence of emotion in animals. "Some are good-tempered, sluggish, and little prone to ferocity, as the ox; others are quick-tempered, ferocious, and unteachable, as the wild boar," he wrote in The History of Animals. Today, the proposition that animals share some of the same feelings as man -- actually experiencing pain, grief, and joy -- is winning more advocates. And animal rights activists point to that concept as a concrete reason to end man's exploitation of animals. The reformers are getting help from biologist Marc Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, who has compiled a new book, The Smile of the Dolphin, in which dozens of animal researchers explain why they believe animals have emotions.