If we could walk with the animals, talk with the animals,

Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals,

And they could squeak and squawk and speak and talk to us.
- Dr. Doolittle

They are very intelligent creatures. They have emotions, and feelings. Maybe it was unhappy in the situation. Maybe it was bored.
- Killer whale expert Nancy Black after tragic death of whale trainer

Is there a line to be drawn between man and beast? Will we ever truly learn to talk to the animals? There have been a few animal-related news stories lately that got us thinking. The first two are positively life-affirming: human researchers learning the secret language of elephants; Treo the black labrador awarded the 'animal version of the Victoria Cross' for services in Afghanistan. But a third story was not so cuddly, that of experienced whale trainer Dawn Brancheau reportedly grabbed by the hair and pulled underwater by a captive killer whale called Tilikum, in front of a paying audience at SeaWorld park in Orlando, Florida. She did not survive the attack.

• Will we ever be on speaking terms with the animals? For instance, will we ever understand enough the complex sequence of clicks and squeals that whales use to communicate with each so that one day we can communicate with them?

• Do you feel that you properly communicate with your pet? Does your pet ever 'talk' to you?

• Do you think there is anything left for us to learn about the way animals communicate with each other? Should we work closely with animals in order to further understand them?

• Or is it better that we keep a safe and respectable distance, keep the barriers up between the species and simply 'let them be'?