More than puppy love: Animals form strong love bond with each other and with their owners BY Amy Sacks DAILY NEWS WRITER Mickey and Jo were rescued together from the frozen waters near Inwood Hill Park, then spent time apart while each was on the mend. Once reunited, however, the muskovy ducks were clearly feeling amorous. “They ran to each other, quacking gently and ‘embraced’ by wrapping their necks around each other, much to the awe of everyone here,” said Jenny Brown, co-founder of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, an upstate nonprofit that rescues discarded farm animals (woodstockfas.org). Love among animals on the 20-acre farm is a common sight, even between species, she said. Such was the case with Olivia, a goat, and a calf named Dylan. The unlikely couple grazed together and slept next to each other on opposite sides of a fence. “Dylan’s grief was palpable when Olivia died,” Brown said. Science has questioned whether animals are capable of love. But anyone with a pet knows that animals feel a wide range of emotions, including anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and surprise. “Animals have a strong bond to love each other,” said Marc Bekoff, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado and author of “The Emotional Lives of Animals.” Bekoff says there’s considerable evidence that many animals are capable of feelings that run the gamut of the varieties of love, and the latest science argues for the existence of love in many different species. Numerous species’ brain chemistry is identical or similar to ours that allows us to feel love. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/2010/02/06/2010-02-06_more_than_puppy_love_animals_form_strong_love_bond_with_each_other_and_with_thei.html#ixzz0eoCLH1KM

More than puppy love: Animals form strong love bond with each other and with their owners

BY Amy Sacks
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Mickey and Jo were rescued together from the frozen waters near Inwood Hill Park, then spent time apart while each was on the mend. Once reunited, however, the muskovy ducks were clearly feeling amorous.

“They ran to each other, quacking gently and ‘embraced’ by wrapping their necks around each other, much to the awe of everyone here,” said Jenny Brown, co-founder of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, an upstate nonprofit that rescues discarded farm animals (woodstockfas.org).

Love among animals on the 20-acre farm is a common sight, even between species, she said.

Such was the case with Olivia, a goat, and a calf named Dylan. The unlikely couple grazed together and slept next to each other on opposite sides of a fence.

“Dylan’s grief was palpable when Olivia died,” Brown said.

Science has questioned whether animals are capable of love. But anyone with a pet knows that animals feel a wide range of emotions, including anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and surprise.

“Animals have a strong bond to love each other,” said Marc Bekoff, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado and author of “The Emotional Lives of Animals.”

Bekoff says there’s considerable evidence that many animals are capable of feelings that run the gamut of the varieties of love, and the latest science argues for the existence of love in many different species. Numerous species’ brain chemistry is identical or similar to ours that allows us to feel love.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/2010/02/06/2010-02-06_more_than_puppy_love_animals_form_strong_love_bond_with_each_other_and_with_thei.html#ixzz0eoCLH1KM