![]() ![]() ![]() Play behaviour is widespread in mammals and many birds. While much attention is given to negative feelings such as stress and fear, animal welfare is also dependent on pleasurable emotions. 12 These measures have shown that many animals have “rich and deeply emotional lives”. While animals cannot verbally report their feelings as humans do, all other methods of studying human emotions can also be applied to animals. “Given that the mechanisms of pain in vertebrates are the same, it strains credibility to suggest that the experience of pain suddenly emerges at the level of humans.” 10ĭeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, Peter Singer, argues that “it is surely unreasonable to suppose that nervous systems that are virtually identical physiologically, have a common origin and a common evolutionary function, and result in similar forms of behaviour in similar circumstances should actually operate in an entirely different manner on the level of subjective feelings.” 11 Emotional lives Humans’ capacity to feel pain is a method of survival that is likely to have been preserved during our evolution.The natural pain-inhibiting systems found in the human body (such as endorphins) are very similar to those found in all other vertebrates. Pain relieving drugs control what appears to be pain in all vertebrates and some invertebrates.“The neural mechanisms responsible for pain behaviour are remarkably similar in all vertebrates.” 8.Rollin, Distinguished University Professor at Colorado State University, explains that: While pain itself cannot be directly observed in another being, 7 there is mounting scientific evidence to support the common assumption that animals suffer.ĭr. If we accept animal sentience, then certain practices like factory farming must be reconsidered. Cruelty towards animals cannot be justified by their level of cognition, communication skills or species membership, as these traits are irrelevant to an animal’s capacity for suffering and preference for a good life. ![]() Voiceless believes that humans have an ethical obligation to protect the interests of animals. In 2012, an international group of eminent neuroscientists signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which confirmed that many animals, including all mammals and birds, possess the “neurological substrates that generate consciousness.” 3 Is sentience important?Ī sentient animal is “a being who has interests that is, a being who prefers, desires, or wants.” 4 These animals naturally try to avoid suffering and seek positive experiences, 5 just like humans. 1 It’s commonly described as the capacity to feel pleasure and pain.Īn animal is sentient if “it is capable of being aware of its surroundings, its relationships with other animals and humans, and of sensations in its own body, including pain, hunger, heat or cold.” 2 Animal sentience is the ability to perceive and feel things. ![]()
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