Animal Sentience, Animal Emotions, and Human-Animal Interactions

Animal sentience and animal emotions are essential in the context of human-animal interactions (HAI). For HAI to be successful and beneficial to animals and humans, it is crucial to incorporate at least some basic knowledge of these concepts. This chapter first briefly explains what is meant by animal sentience and animal emotions and shows why current research focuses mainly on the latter. After introducing some basic theoretical concepts on emotions, it discusses how emotions can be identified in animals and why this is vital for HAI. The focus of this chapter is on emotional behavioural expressions in animals. In addition to knowing how animals express emotions, it is important for HAI to understand how well humans (and animals) can perceive each other’s emotions. This chapter provides a brief insight into this topic and also discusses recent advances in automating emotion recognition in animals, which can offer promising advances for HAI in the future.