>>7It's called "anthropomorphism". People see a cat with tears in its eyes and think that this is a proof that cats are sad in human way.
Now, I'm all for animal rights, because even passively supporting factory farming (by buying products that even just might contain anything produced through factory farming) is truly subhuman. But animals aren't humans - they deserve "negative rights", such as the right not to suffer, but they don't need nor have the capability to benefit from right to self-actualization.
Your mother and your girlfriend can't be awakened any more than a dog can be awakened.
You can teach them to ape the movements, to make the noises, but if you presented them with raw data and asked for an opinion, they would defer to society or the trainer.
And if you were certain of their ability to form own opinions, this would only mean your own opinions are so NPC that they can be aped by a dog.