Salt Lake Tribune | 1905-06-12 | Page 17 | Are Animals Sympathetic?

Are Animals Sympathetic? An Iowa correspondent asks me to give him my opinion as to whether or not anv Of the dumb animals have svmpnthv and added that a minister at a funeral In their town had said that no animal e.-cept e.-cept man was capable of sympathy I agree with tho minister. Sympathy I think, is beyond tho lower animals hen we sympathize with a person we put ourselves in his or her phi. . we fee sorry for him; we pity him; we would gladly alleviate his suffering all of which Implies more or less Imagination nnd disinterested regHt-.l. Susceptibility to the sufferings of others is one of many higher attributes. When sympathy was born the- t.i.e llfied above tho purely animal plane. Tho next step is talcing the sufferings of others upon yourself, which Is the highest form of altruism' Puru sslflshnsss rules the lower animals, and necessarily so. Sympathy a not necessary for the continuance of the species, but affection for their young Is Animals certainly have a feollng of comradeship com-radeship for each other, and experience something Ilk.- grief at separation, yet a dog or a cat or a horso or a cow will sniff at the body of Its .bad fallow with apparent unconcern. A cry of distress among the birds will bring every bird within hearing to tho spot, and causo them to be more or less agitated, but It Is only because they are alarmed for then own saf-tv. a common enemy may be about In the held and the (jock ;i Sick 'T wound, d member is often falb n upon by lis f. llows and destroyed. If arty animal ever experiences the emotion w- cull sympathy It Is. of course, the dog. The dog has so long been the companion com-panion of man that ho ofien shows In Bis nature a trace of the purely human. John Burroughs In Outing