The complexity of her plan, which she must have thought out virtually on the fly, is just stunning. And the perfect execution of her deception ... my God, bringing one of her babies in sacrifice to the farmer, and hiding the other in the woods beyond her pasture. In a human, her behavior would have been called brilliant and heroic. It's heartbreaking.

a quote from Temple Grandin.

That animals, even what we consider to be lower levels, such as reptiles, are every bit as cognizant and self aware as humans. If they act differently than humans, then that is simply because they have different needs and desires than we do; not because they do not have thinking and reasoning abilities. Animals have proved over and over again that they have empathy and the ability to love...and those are among the highest of human behaviors.