Do animals have free will? Sure, they can walk wherever, neigh, bleat, and roar at will, but what compulsion does a dog feel to bark at a car pulling into the garage or a knock at the door? Does the dog have the mental capacity to realize that, at the same time every day, its owner is the one pulling into the garage, and not some imminent threat? And on a broader scale, do animals make conscious decisions at all, or do they act solely on instinct… and do animals have souls?
The initial question of animals having free will behaves like the mythical Hydra, where tackling one question- severing one head- leaves you with two more. Firstly, one must narrow the array of animals’ free will to discuss: dogs, sheep, and apes. Starting with dogs: they bark a lot. At least most do, and the list of things they bark at seems to have no bounds. The mailman, other dogs, squirrels, etc. . Basic research, although it may be a reach to call it research, says that dogs bark when facing a threat, communicating with other dogs, and are in pain, among a few other reasons. But that research also tells that dogs bark to get our attention- as in they know that it gets our attention. They may be hungry, bored, want to go on a walk, or desire a treat. One could argue that this proves free will, at least in canines, as the fact of them knowing that their barks have an effect on other dogs, and most importantly, humans, shows that they are to a degree conscious of the effect they have on other living things, even outside of their species. However, do they know exactly what they are communicating to other dogs? In the wild, before domestication, were dogs speaking a language? Moreover, do they think that they are speaking a language to us? The simple answer is no- a dog lacks the mental capacity to speak language, and is reduced to caveman (or cave-dog) speak of noises and a variety of physical acts, like performing tricks and laying on their back.
The idea of dogs knowing what “shake,” “sit,” and “play dead,” means also may hint at free will. We may not be able to understand them, but they, again to an extent, can understand us. However, humans use a rudimentary reward system with pats on the head or treats to train dogs what their commands mean. Humans do not use this system when teaching their own babies language, but this may be out of a lack of necessity, as babies’ brains grow at an astonishing rate- their brains roughly double in size within the first year. Dogs know, after an amount of time, that their tricks yield treats or affection. However, are they performing these tricks consciously where they know beforehand that they will receive something, or is there a larger, instinctive conscience telling them to perform a trick so that they can eat or receive some gratification by pats? Dogs are certainly smarter than most animals, so let’s move to a, not to be mean, dumber animal: sheep.
“Don’t be a sheep”, as in, don’t always side with the majority. But why do sheep do just that if it is clearly a negative trait for humans? Simple: it is their instinct. They follow each other, live in herds, and are corralled by dogs to where the food and shelter are. Sheep are evolved to not have free will. It would be dangerous for a sheep, so defenseless against a predator, to be alone in the wild, so they stick together, and thus are easily farmed. Sheep are also not commonly kept as pets. This suggests that they do not have free will. On the whole, they lack the capacity to form any major bonds to their owners, which to be fair, is due to the owner’s disinterest in keeping a sheep as a pet. Sheep, and most herding animals, act as one collective consciousness, where they mosey across the pastures slowly and spend their days chewing grass. A stray cow or sheep may jump the fence from time to time, but the real question is this: are they jumping the fence because they want to, or are they hungry, and looking for more food? On one hand, they could be jumping the fence out of curiosity, and maybe the prospect of fuller fields of grass, but on the other, they might not be thinking about why at all, and the reasoning is as simple as hunger: a sheep must eat to survive, and if it cannot find enough food in its current enclosure, then it must, in order to survive, look elsewhere for food. Sheep have an easy time finding their food- they walk on it all day every day- but what about an animal which has to search for, climb to, and gather its food?
Our closest relative, Apes, have to be smart. Their food grows on trees, but a number of fruits in the jungle are poisonous, so they must be able to distinguish between types of fruits using their color, shape, etc. Apes have families, hierarchies, and friends, which showcases their mental capabilities. But the same interrogation that befell the sheep shall lay upon the Ape: is the ape being instructed by a higher consciousness- instinct- to eat the fruits that taste good and don’t make it sick, or does the ape keep a personal account of those fruits which are poisonous, and decide whether or not to eat it? Additionally, is the ape self aware? Food first: apes climb trees, and surely they know of the danger that comes with swinging dozens of feet off the forest floor, but they climb nonetheless because they have to eat. The ape may think to itself that, because it is hungry it should find more fruit, but it also may be acting upon impulse when it feels hungry, and it knows, not because it was taught, but because it was genetically hardwired to go find more food. Now onto the emotions: apes form bonds with their parents and siblings. Are these bonds formed out of necessity? Because single apes in the jungle have to have a higher chance of being eaten by a predator than the apes who stick together. The bonds that apes have with each other allow them to take care of and protect each other, and share and point others in the direction of food. Does the individual ape create a bond with its siblings, friends, or parents because they genuinely care for their survival and not just its own, or do they simply have basic pattern recognition and notice that if they give food and protection, they receive food and protection?
If the answer to the free will question is Yes, does that also mean that animals must have souls? Yes animals lack religion, but they must instinctively, like we do, fear death, as they eat to not die, find shelter to not die, cohabitate to not die, and so this primordial fear of death is parallel to the inherent fear of death for us humans. But at the same time, is the individual dog, sheep, or ape afraid of dying, or is it motivated by its evolutionary drive to not die before it reproduces? Is that why all animals that exist today exist? The reason we exist, the reason any living thing exists, is because the organism or parent which came before it lived long enough to reproduce. Do animals realize that, by performing tricks for food, flocking together for protection, and swinging through trees for fruit, they serve a purpose that is simultaneously larger than life, but who’s sole goal is to replicate life across generations? Obviously there is an evolutionary advantage to those animals or species who reproduce because their offspring is what literally enables evolution, and so every living thing is capable of reproducing, as otherwise, it wouldn’t exist. We humans have souls- we think above immediate survival, are self aware, have faith in a tapestry of religions, and have memories that stay with us our entire lives. We choose whether or not to reproduce, as we have realized that there is more to life than procreation, but the final question is this: have animals- has any animal- experienced the same revelation?