By Frans de Waal • 2019 A companion to Are We Smart Enough , but focused on emotions rather than cognition. De Waal argues that animal emotions are not lesser versions of human emotions, they're actually the originals . We inherited our emotional architecture from our evolutionary ancestors; we didn't invent it. The book explores empathy, grief, shame, gratitude, and disgust across species, grounded in decades of primatological observation. Why it matters The question of ani

Rick serves the family spaghetti, which Morty accidentally discovers came from a person's body. After a journey of twists, cognitive dissonance and turns, Rick has one last terminally ill person commit suicide on live TV. Imdb link Release date: November 5, 2023 Director: Lucas Gray Context The episode asks questions about animal rights and the ethics of eating meat by depicting food that comes from suffering.

By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson • 2003 Masson ( When Elephants Weep ) turns his attention to the animals most people never think about as individuals. He profiles pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, and goats, drawing on ethological research and his own observations to argue that these animals have rich emotional lives: they form friendships, grieve losses, experience joy and fear and boredom. The book is a corrective to the industrial view of livestock as units of production. Why it m

By Peter Wohlleben • 2016 Wohlleben's follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees , this time focused on animals. He draws on his decades as a forester to describe grief in deer, gratitude in crows, shame in dogs, and maternal love across species. The tone is the same; warm, observational, and unafraid of emotional language that would make a strict behaviourist wince. Why it matters Where de Waal ( Mama's Last Hug , Are We Smart Enough? ) writes as a scientist building a careful ca

By Peter Wohlleben • 2015 A German forester's account of trees as social beings communicating through underground fungal networks, nurturing their young, warning neighbours of danger, and even keeping ancient stumps alive for centuries through shared resources. Wohlleben anthropomorphises freely and unapologetically, describing trees as having friends, families, and something like intentions. Why it matters This isn't strictly an animal rights book but it is an empathy machin

By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson • 1995 A book that asked a question science wasn't ready to take seriously: do animals have emotional lives? Masson, a former psychoanalyst, surveys evidence of grief, joy, anger, love, and shame across species. Elephants mourning their dead, dogs experiencing jealousy, parrots forming lifelong bonds. The book is part literature review, part philosophical argument, part provocation aimed at a scientific establishment that had long dismissed animal

By Frans de Waal • 2016 Primatologist Frans de Waal dismantles decades of scientific bias that framed animal cognition research around the question "can they do what we do?" He argues the question itself is flawed - that we've systematically underestimated animal intelligence by testing them on human terms rather than their own. The book surveys remarkable findings across species: tool use in crows, planning in apes, empathy in elephants, memory in octopuses. But more importa

David DeGrazia • 1996 In this rigorously academic follow-up to Animal Rights , DeGrazia argues for "critical anthropomorphism" : taking animal minds seriously by measuring behaviour and biology. The book engages deeply with philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and ethical theory, and builds a coherent ethical framework for moral consideration of non-human animals. Why it matters DeGrazia builds his case from the ground up, addressing sceptics on their own terms. And, while

Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen. Imdb link Release date: 7 December 2006 Director: Gary Winick Story by: E. B. White, Earl Hamner Jr. Based on: Charlotte's Web; by E. B. White Music by: Danny Elfman Distributed by: Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, FilmF

Gentle farmer Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner, Babe bonds with motherly border collie Fly and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other animals accept him? Imdb link Release date: 14 December 1995 Director: Chris Noonan Story by: Dick King-Smith Screenplay: Chris Noonan, George Miller Trivia The film that made an entire generation uncomfortable at the dinner table. A pig raised for slaughter dis

A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus.

An encounter with a mother pig, two cows and a one-legged chicken.