The sad eyes. The whimpering. The trouble with the water dish. Sometimes, the surgical collar prescribed for a post-op pet can seem worse than the actual wound.
Researchers and clinicians call it an “Elizabethan collar” or E-collar because it resembles the fashionable fabric ruffle in Elizabethan times. Pet parents, however, know it as the “cone of shame” for how humiliated and unhappy it makes their pet.
In recent years, animal behaviorists have researched the impact of E-collars on animal welfare. Although scientists disagree on whether companion animals feel humiliation, studies find the cone of shame negatively impacts both pets and their people.
Researchers aren’t sure if animals are embarrassed by the cone, but animal emotion studies are relatively new. For decades, scientists hesitated to study animal emotions lest they be accused of anthropomorphism. They still don’t agree on which emotions animals possess and whether we can ever truly know.
However, ...
