Press Release

Lose the Herd Mentality About Sheep: They’re Actually Highly Intelligent and Emotionally Complex Individuals

Press Release

Lose the Herd Mentality About Sheep: They’re Actually Highly Intelligent and Emotionally Complex Individuals

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A new peer-reviewed scientific article concludes they have a number of complex psychological capacities on a par with humans and other primates

NEW YORK, NY – “Mary had a little lamb,” “baa, baa, black sheep,” Sherry Lewis’ Lamb Chop, and the Serta mattress sheep have all shaped popular perceptions of sheep, but what do we really know about these gentle beings? Collectively viewed as passive flocks, sheep, because of their willingness to be led and handled, are stereotyped as unintelligent, simple-minded, and dependent. However, a new paper published today in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Animal Sentience paints a more complex picture of sheep as intelligent and highly social individuals.

The article, written by neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino and University of Oregon Professor Debra Merskin, provides intriguing examples based on an extensive review of the scientific literature to date on sheep learning and cognition, emotions, personality, and social complexity, showing that contrary to popular views of sheep as unintelligent and lacking in individuality or autonomy, they have a number of complex psychological capacities.

For example, sheep:

  • Can mentally play with and manipulate concepts and ideas (complex abilities known as “executive functions”), which allow them to discriminate between objects based on various dimensions (e.g., color or shape), learn rules, and understand and respond correctly when an established rule has been reversed (reversal learning) on a par with primates;

  • Can distinguish and identify faces of other sheep, humans, and members of other species on a par with primates including humans — even when presented with photographs of the individuals at different ages and in different orientations;

  • Can remember the faces of other sheep for more than two years; 

  • Can recognize emotional expressions on the faces of other sheep (i.e., they can tell a calm sheep from a startled sheep just from the face);

  • Experience emotions ranging from basic feelings of fear, anger, disgust, and contentment, to very complex emotions, such as emotional contagion, or the ability to “catch” another’s feelings (considered a basic form of empathy in social species and may form the bases of sympathy and perspective-taking);

  • Experience judgment bias, a cognitive effect on decision making analogous to what we call “pessimism” and “optimism” (for instance, if sheep are exposed to chronically stressful situations they become pessimistic, i.e., less willing to try to complete a task);

  • Stay calmer and less stressed when accompanied by fellow sheep even during stressful situations;

  • Form strongly bonded social groups, with mothers and lambs sharing an especially powerful emotional connection;

  • Learn from each other; and

  • Have distinct, individual personalities with traits that map onto the personality traits of humans and many other animals, especially the dimensions of shyness/boldness and gregariousness (how much they like to interact with other sheep).

Dr. Marino explains that “Our review contradicts historical perceptions of sheep that fuel and sustain contemporary media, popular culture, and farming practices. Christian and other theologies situate sheep in the contemporary consciousness as obedient, passive, and uniform; this view supports their continued use as commodities and creates the psychological need to downplay their intelligence and individuality. This is evident in the way more than 10 million sheep and lambs are raised every year under intensive industrial conditions for wool, milk, and meat, as well as their ubiquitous use in biomedical research. In the United States alone, more than 2 million individuals are killed each year (Sheep and Goats 2018). It is our hope that this comprehensive analysis of scientific literature will serve as the foundation for reconsidering the use of sheep as commodities in modern agricultural production and in invasive research, and will promote learning more about sheep using noninvasive research in more natural and non-coercive settings such as sanctuaries.”

 Dr. Marino is a former faculty member in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, and the executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy. She has written over 130 publications on dolphin and whale brain evolution and anatomy; intelligence and self-awareness; and the effects of captivity on social mammals, including cetaceans, elephants, and primates. She worked with the Nonhuman Rights Project and is featured in the blockbuster documentary film “Blackfish.” Debra Merskin is a professor of media studies in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon whose research focuses on how the media and popular press represent animals, resulting in species stereotypes, and how these portrayals affect the lived experiences of real animals. Her most recent book is Seeing Species: Re-Presentations of Animals in the Media & Popular Culture (2018, Peter Lang).

This is the fifth paper produced with grant money from Farm Sanctuary’s The Someone Project, an endeavor aimed at using scientific evidence to raise the public’s understanding of farm animal cognition and behavior. The first four papers focused on the cognitive and behavioral complexities of fish, pigs, chickens, and cows respectively, and generated international attention.

About Farm Sanctuary

Founded in 1986, Farm Sanctuary works to change how our society views and treats farm animals through rescue, education and advocacy. The organization provides lifelong care for animals rescued from abuse at sanctuary locations in New York and California; promotes compassionate vegan living; and advocates legal and policy reforms. To learn more about Farm Sanctuary, visit farmsanctuary.org.