Animal Sentience
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/education/animal.html
The basis of all CIWF's work on farm animal welfare is the recognition
that animals are sentient beings.
This means they are capable of being aware of sensations and emotions,
of feeling pain and suffering, and of experiencing a state of well
being. CIWF believes that our own behaviour towards animals should be
guided by this recognition of their sentience.
Most of us use animal products every day, but how much do we know
about the animals' needs and wants, or about their emotional lives?
Contents
What is animal sentience – and why does it matter?
Increase in scientific knowledge
Scientific studies of animal sentience
Sentient animals have preferences and intentions
Understanding animals
Implications of animal sentience
CIWF Sentience Conference (2005)
Further reading - selected suggestions
What is Animal Sentience – and why does it matter?
Humans share the planet with as many as 4700 species of mammals, 9700
species of birds, 4800 species of amphibians, over 23,000 species of
fish and around 6000 species of reptiles (as far as we know up to
now), not to mention the countless species of invertebrate animals.
We interact with and use animals in a multitude of ways in our daily
lives.
But how much do we know about how these animals experience the world –
what they feel, why they behave in the ways they do, how they
understand their environment, how and what they communicate?
Many of us at some time must have watched another animal – a dog, a
cat, a horse, a bird, a flock of sheep – and wondered, ‘What is she
feeling now?’ or ‘Why is he behaving like that?’ or ‘What do they
want?Â’. Questions like these may seem simple, even simple-minded, but
in fact they are very complex and important to our understanding of
the place of humans in the natural world.
Increase in scientific knowledge
A huge increase in scientific research on animal sentience is
beginning to answer some of the questions about animal sentience and
animal consciousness, although many unsolved mysteries and questions
remain for future study and debate. This will be one of the most
exciting areas of biology in the coming decades. And the answers have
big implications which are being explored by philosophers and lawyers.
How should we treat other animals? What are our responsibilities to
them? Do they have rights?
Scientific studies of Animal Sentience
The most basic way of experiencing the world is through feeling or
sensation. ‘Sentience’ is defined as the ability to have perceptions
and sensations. A ‘sentient animal’ is an animal that is aware of
his/her surroundings and of what happens to him/her and is capable of
feeling pain and pleasure, at the least. The current scientific
consensus is that all vertebrate animals, at least, are capable of
feeling pain and experiencing distress. (For this reason anti-cruelty
laws exist in many countries.)
But many of the animals we interact with turn out to have more complex
mental and emotional lives than people have understood in the past,
and new scientific research is constantly revealing new evidence of
animalsÂ’ cognitive abilities and their emotions.
Sentient animals have preferences and intentions
It turns out that some animals can both remember and anticipate events
and some can foresee their future needs and plan ahead. They can
maintain complex social relationships in their groups. Some animals
can understand what another animal is going to do, and attempt to
deceive that animal in order to gain an advantage. Some animals can
enjoy learning a new skill. Some animals react to other animals in
ways resembling human empathy. On the negative side, animals can
experience the unpleasant emotions of pain, fear, frustration and
probably boredom as well. They can be reduced to a state resembling
human depression by chronic stress or confinement in a cage.
All these abilities listed above have been documented in scientific
research. Of course these abilities vary between different species.
And of course we cannot assume that if an animal behaves in ways that
look familiar to us, the animal has the same mental experiences as a
human would have in similar circumstances. In the current state of
knowledge it is impossible to prove beyond doubt what an animal is
feeling, or perhaps thinking. But it is equally important not to
underestimate animalsÂ’ feelings and the sophistication of their mental
processes, because this may well affect how we behave towards animals.
Photo by permission ©Andrew Lucas
Importantly, several of the abilities that have in past been thought
to be uniquely human – for example, the use of tools, the ability to
plan ahead, the ability to empathise with another or to deceive
another, the transmission of skills in ways that can be classified as
‘culture’, behaviour that can be classified as ‘morality’ – are now
known to exist to some extent among non-human animals too. From the
point of view of evolutionary biology, it makes sense that humans
should share many of our emotional and cognitive abilities with some
of the other animal species.
Understanding animals
Throughout history people have known that animals do very ‘clever’ and
impressive things – such as a bird building an intricate nest or a
mother animal teaching her young. Folk stories all over the word
attribute intelligence and cunning to animals.
But for much of the 20th century scientists believed that all animal
behaviour could be explained either as innate behaviour patterns in
response to internal or external stimuli or as conditioned learning in
response to stimuli.
Emotion or problem-solving on the part of the animal were not
considered necessary to explain its behaviour and it was considered
impossible to study these aspects at all. What is exciting about the
present time is that scientists are once again interested in studying
animalsÂ’ emotions and mental processes and that huge progress in
understanding animals is being made.
Implications of Animal Sentience
The facts and theories of animal sentience are still hotly debated
among scientists and philosophers. But most people have over history
assumed that many animals feel pain, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, fear,
anger and other basic emotions, because we have everyday evidence that
they do.
Why use a whip or stick on a horse unless it feels unpleasant enough
to make the horse move faster? If a dog, horse or cow is limping,
most people would naturally assume that the animal is in pain. Most
people would also assume that the pain is distressing to the animal
and, if they could, they would try to do something to alleviate it.
However, throughout history humans have also treated animals in ways
that caused great suffering to the animals, whether intentionally or
unintentionally.
Today there is increasing concern about the welfare of animals,
whether these are wild animals or those used by people for food, work,
companionship, entertainment, sport or scientific research.
From Darwin to Dawkins: The science and implications of Animal
Sentience
In March 2005, CIWF hosted an international conference on animal
sentience in London. Dr Jane Goodall DBE gave the keynote address
suggesting that the burden of proof should not be on those trying to
prove the sentience of animals, but rather on those seeking to
disprove it. A free DVD showing highlights from Compassion in World
Farming's major international conference is now available to order
online.
In the future, Compassion in World Farming plans to develop a set of
animal sentience web pages that will aim to provide:
Updates on current scientific research on animal sentience, based on
findings in disciplines ranging from animal behaviour to neurobiology
Reviews of particular areas of animal sentience research
Stories relevant to animal sentience in the media
Updates on how animal welfare science is progressing animal welfare at
a practical level across the world
Guest articles on science, ethics and law relating to animal sentience
A special section for younger students
Further reading - selected suggestions
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100:1-2, Oct 2006. Special issue:
sentience in animals. - Selection of scientific papers from
Compassion in World Farming's conference, From Darwin to Dawkins: The
science and implications of animal sentience, March 2005.
J D'Silva and J Turner (eds), 2006. Animals, ethics and trade.
Earthscan. Further papers from Compassion in World Farming's
conference, From Darwin to Dawkins: The science and implications of
animal sentience, March 2005. Foremost international experts examine
the philosophical, legal, policy and practical implications of our
current knowledge of animal sentience.
M Bekoff (ed), Jun 2007. Encyclopedia of human-animal relationships.
Greenwood Press
F D McMillan, 2005 (ed). Mental health and well-being in animals.
Blackwell Publishing
J Webster, 2005. Animal welfare: limping towards Eden. Blackwell
Publishing
T Grandin and C Johnson, 2005. Animals in Translation: Using the
Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. Scribner
M Bekoff (ed), 2004. Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. Greenwood
Press
N G Gregory, 2004. Physiology and behaviour of animal suffering.
Blackwell Science
F B M de Waal and P L Tyack, 2003. Animal social complexity:
intelligence, culture, and individualized societies. Harvard
University Press
S M Wise, 2002/3. Drawing the line: science and the case for animal
rights. Perseus Publishing
D R Griffin, 2001. Animal minds: beyond cognition to consciousness.
University of Chicago Press
L J Keeling and H W Gonyou (eds), 2001. Social behaviour in farm
animals. CABI Publishing
M Hauser, 2000. Wild minds: what animals really think. Henry Holt
and Company
C Moss, 2000. Elephant memories: thirteen years in the life of an
elephant family. University of Chicago Press.
M S Dawkins, 1998. Through our eyes only? The search for animal
consciousness. Oxford University Press
A Manning and M S Dawkins, 1998. An introduction to animal behaviour.
Cambridge University Press
F Fraser and D M Broom, 1997. Farm animal behaviour and welfare.
CABI Publishing
Compassion in World Farming: River Court, Mill Lane, Godalming,
Surrey, GU7 1EZ Registered Charity Number1095050
Tel: +44(0)1483 521950 Fax: +44(0)1483 861639 Legal Information
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" There are none so blind as those that do not know they cannot see.
There are none so deaf as those who do not know they cannot hear.
There are none so numb as those who do not know they cannot feel."
