by Nanette Piotrowski

Created on: November 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 07, 2010

All animals (human or other) on the face of the earth that bleed or feel pain, are also capable of feeling emotion. Both, also show that emotion, either verbally or physically.

As in the case of humans, we are able to relate our feelings to one another by speaking about our fears, sadness, anger or happiness and the only reason we can do this is not because we are smarter or have a higher brain capacity, but because our vocal chords are designed as such, to form the words.

In the animal kingdom, vocal chords are still present, however, they are not able to produce or form appropriate sounds necessary for us to understand them.

There have been many documented cases of where an animal has shown and verbalized their mourning, either for their masters or for their own kind.

I have seen first hand an incidence of a mother cow whose calf had died. She refused to eat, drink or leave the body of her dead calf and was lowing (crying).

She tried to get her baby up by pushing against it and when the owners came to retrieve the body of the calf, the mother tried to get between them and the baby.

In some cases where the master has died, the animal has refused to leave the body or will lay on the grave, refusing to leave. Thereafter, the grieving is so strong, that the animal won't eat or drink and in some instances will die themselves.

YouTube recently showed two dogs walking along the interstate and one dog was hit by a car and thrown into the middle of oncoming traffic. The other dog ran into the lane and attempted to pull the injured dog to safety.

By using its front legs, the dog reached under the front of the other dogs front legs and began pulling him to the side of the interstate. Once on the shoulder of the road, the dog started nudging and barking trying to get the injured dog to respond.

In one instance, there was a male and female blue bird sitting on a branch of a tree. The female flew down and was hit by a car. She lay there crying and the male bird came down to her side.

He tried to help her up by using his wings, but she died. He put his wings over her body and with his head pointed to the sky, he cried.

Death and mourning are not synonymous with humans as is evidenced by the previous examples. Mourning is the manifestation of sorrow, so anything with cognitive capabilities can mourn.

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