Gratitude Project - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

Empathy and Turkeys: A Thanksgiving Reflection | My Gratitude Project Day 26

Empathy and turkeys — a half-serious post on the day before Thanksgiving? Should we empathize with turkeys? This is treacherous moral ground, and I am of the opinion that in our morals, we must each be guided by our own conscience. Vegans don’t eat any animal products, often because of a sense of empathy with them. I respect that. I also know that domesticated animals wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for farming. Most farm animals wouldn’t survive in the wild—or…

Animal Empathy: What Horses, Crows, and Dogs Teach Us | My Gratitude Project Day 25

November 25, 2025

Gratitude Project

Animal empathy? Research suggests that many animals empathize just like we do—or at least sort of like we do. The basis for animal empathy is mirror neurons, which were actually first detected in monkeys rather than humans. Researchers observed that the monkeys’ brains were activated in the same way whether they were grasping an object or watching another monkey grasp an object. That is the magic of mirror neurons and empathy: whether we do it or see it, our brain…