Do you think humans are free today? We build concrete and wooden jails called "houses" to enclose ourselves, we deny every instinct of our own nature, both personally and socially. Look carefully at the pavement of the roads, you can see the nature represented in a bush trying to cross our impediment, but we don't leave it, we cut it and keep it away from our sight.
Every time we see a sample of who we really are, we look the other way, and we cover it, you can see any representation of our future, in a movie or book, there is not much nature there, it seems that we believe that development, technology, and progress, are far from nature, when it is not like that.
We build social networks and virtual worlds, when we are more asocial than ever, and yet we dare to call us society.
The human has made concessions to his freedom for many years looking for security, we no longer trust our neighbors. But security will always be the greatest threat to freedom, because the only way to be safe is by avoiding exposure, and in turn, by denying our nature.
No one who denies his true nature will ever be happy. The human is by nature, like animals, free and happy, but it is up to us to follow our nature or reject it.
Answering your final question; Yes, I believe that "free humans" are just as happy as free animals, but we will have to settle for being as happy as zoo animals.
I regret having extended so much in a comment, but its publication made me think. Greetings.
Check out this post I made yesterday, and this one I made 16 days ago. Both touch a certain topic I'm very passionate about and that you seem to feel strongly towards as well. The topic is the inability we have to forego our natural impulses. We are tied to a myriad of forces that push us around and even if we notice them, we are unable to walk freely.
We may choose which forces to heed, which to avoid, and put some pressure toward one direction, but really, there is nothing we can do apart from that. We are slaves to nature and, as much as we want to believe that consciousness is some otherworldly ability to escape these forces, they're just a part of them. As @alejandromata said in yesterday's posts: we only notice that thoughts happened after the fact.
Don't regret that!
No! Extend as much as you want. I'll always read it and I feel that it's an awesome way to interact. I can only wish that most of my commenters didn't hold back and just exploded with their thoughts down here. I confess that it's one of my greatest pleasures on Steemit to read what people have to say about these questions and about my posts.