Do pets grow bored?

[karadan]

Absolutely animals get bored, why wouldn't they?  I think that religions have somehow convinced people that animals don't have a soul, therefore, they don't have emotions or thoughts, that they can't experience love or dislike.  I am convinced that they do have emotions, they can be happy, or sad, or bored, or angry, or any number of emotions.  In the field of psychology there have been any number of cognitive psychological studies on animal emotions, particularly among mamals and birds.

Animals can develop neurotic behaviors, as well. Tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors have been documented in some of the higher order mamals, even in cats and dogs.  My own cats, I have two, become very destructive when not stimulated and have this odd behavior of going to their scratch post when they are called down for something they've done wrong.  They are like toddlers in their behavior.  Animals are very much like humans in their need for routine, as well.  I have a cat, named Scooter, who every night at 10pm, comes to my chair and insists that I go down the hall to bed and rub his belly as he rolls around on the floor.  If I ignore him, he will get in my face, sometimes bite my leg, and just have a fit, until I go down the hall and play with him.  Even if I return to my chair, at 10 pm I HAVE to do this with him every night.  I call it "Flippy Kitty" and he will lay on his side and pull himself along with his front legs while I call him the paralysed kitty.  It's really adorable the way he has me trained.  SMILE

Hehe, that's awesome :brick: It was through this rationale that he went on to say there's no such thing as animal cruelty because animals do not posess a soul. I literally burst ear drums over teamspeak because of this. I was absolutely insensed that someone could be so wilfully ignorant about something so obviously apparent. Needless to say, i blew up his internet spaceship immediately.

[Martin TK]

Absolutely animals get bored, why wouldn't they?  I think that religions have somehow convinced people that animals don't have a soul, therefore, they don't have emotions or thoughts, that they can't experience love or dislike.  I am convinced that they do have emotions, they can be happy, or sad, or bored, or angry, or any number of emotions.  In the field of psychology there have been any number of cognitive psychological studies on animal emotions, particularly among mamals and birds.

Animals can develop neurotic behaviors, as well. Tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors have been documented in some of the higher order mamals, even in cats and dogs.  My own cats, I have two, become very destructive when not stimulated and have this odd behavior of going to their scratch post when they are called down for something they've done wrong.  They are like toddlers in their behavior.  Animals are very much like humans in their need for routine, as well.  I have a cat, named Scooter, who every night at 10pm, comes to my chair and insists that I go down the hall to bed and rub his belly as he rolls around on the floor.  If I ignore him, he will get in my face, sometimes bite my leg, and just have a fit, until I go down the hall and play with him.  Even if I return to my chair, at 10 pm I HAVE to do this with him every night.  I call it "Flippy Kitty" and he will lay on his side and pull himself along with his front legs while I call him the paralysed kitty.  It's really adorable the way he has me trained.  SMILE

Hehe, that's awesome :brick: It was through this rationale that he went on to say there's no such thing as animal cruelty because animals do not posess a soul. I literally burst ear drums over teamspeak because of this. I was absolutely insensed that someone could be so wilfully ignorant about something so obviously apparent. Needless to say, i blew up his internet spaceship immediately.

Willful ignorance is what most Faith-Heads base their entire lives on.  My wife and I had this very discussion just this past week while riding through the country side and seeing cattle in the fields.  I usually just ignore their ignorance, the faith heads, that is, not my wife.