Animals and Pain

When you see your rambunctious cat tear across the living room, fly through the dining room, then skid across the kitchen linoleum and smash into the fridge, you worry about her. But she gets up and walks away like nothing happened. How is this possible? If you smashed into kitchen appliances like that, you’d be jumping and yelling with pain. Camels, who are often hit hard by their drivers, seem to feel no pain. (I hope so.) Researchers have discovered that their brain chemistry is different. They actually feel less pain than humans. Perhaps this is why dogs can walk barefoot on gravel driveways without hopping and wincing.

Since we don’t know for sure, and since any pain purposely inflicted is too much, it is best to treat all animals kindly.

See also: The Insidious Dog Collar.