Can animals cry out of pain?
If you define crying as expressing emotion, such as grief or joy, then the answer is yes. Animals do create tears, but only to lubricate their eyes, says Bryan Amaral, senior curator of the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Animals do feel emotions, too, but in nature it's often to their advantage to mask them.
Since all animals and birds share the feelings of love, care, motherhood, pain, territorial possessiveness and intelligence, it is natural that they will also feel the emotions of depression, loss, fear and all the nuances in between. All animals can shed tears.
Common Myths about Pain: Myth #1. Animals do not feel pain as people do. From a physiologic standpoint, mammals and humans process pain in the same way.
The cries of the red fox can sound surprisingly similar to a human in distress.
Fish do not feel pain the way humans do, according to a team of neurobiologists, behavioral ecologists and fishery scientists. The researchers conclude that fish do not have the neuro-physiological capacity for a conscious awareness of pain. Fish do not feel pain the way humans do.
In the lab, researchers found that animals, like chickens and rats, self-administer pain relievers (from special machines set up for tests) when they're hurting. And in general, animals tend to avoid situations in which they've been hurt before — indicating a memory and awareness of previous pain and threats.
No. While canines express needs and wants vocally, there is no scientific evidence proving that dogs, or any other animals, in fact, actually produce tears as a response to what they're feeling. We seem to be the only species capable of breaking into emotional tears.
Having a dog or cat in your life changes the focus from pain to something that brings joy and happiness. ³ Pets need attention and are hard to ignore. Pets are one more tool that has been shown to bring relief and improve the quality of life for many patients living with pain.
In 2008, the studies led to the finding that naked mole rats didn't feel pain when they came into contact with acid and didn't get more sensitive to heat or touch when injured, like we and other mammals do.
Humans are the only known species to produce emotional tears; the expression “crocodile tears,” which refers to a person's phony display of emotion, comes from the mysterious tendency of crocodiles to release tears as they eat.