Instinct instead of understanding

When we have to make up our minds about big issues we’re likely to consult our instincts, especially if the best choices seem obvious. We guess things are so because they are apparently so. For instance, do we need to understand the psyche of a cow, to guess how she feels when her calf is taken away? (Cows are allowed to spend very little time with their calves these days before they are removed). It’s impossible to know how an animal thinks let alone feels. It’s impossible to know for sure. But with imagination and instinct we can guess. Anthropomorphically speaking we rely on our instincts to tell us what we can’t provably ‘know’ … like knowing how this cow feels. We can safely say she feels badly, because she is captive and powerless and she’s forced to lose her offspring.
If we take away an animal’s freedom we take away her very soul; loss of freedom is inimical to all wild creatures and humans too. Once we allow animals their freedom and liberate the captive ones into sanctuaries, we can restore relations with them. And however we are with them, as long as we aren’t violating them or disregarding them or treating them as if they were inferior, then repair is already happening and we are truly living with them, and therefore we can enjoy being close to them.
It’s this wanting-to-be-close that we do best and like most. The buzz from animals is not so different from the buzz we get from kids. For many people, that sort of closeness is unfamiliar. For them animals mean little. They see them as objects, certainly not as equals. Animals are there to be exploited.
With attitude like this animals all over the world are in a parlous situation. That’s why, to us, it is of such great concern.