WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)
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The question is not “can humans talk?” or “can they suffer?” but “can they reason?”
Get PDFIn their target article, Rowan et al (2022) make a welcome attempt to chart the development of Western progress over the past two hundred years toward formally recognizing that animals feel. They outline the heroic efforts of Compassion in World Farming to gain for animals the status of sentient beings rather than merely human property. A broader view exists, from human prehistory to the present day, in which animals have been (and still are) understood to be sentient by indigenous peoples as well as by some Eastern religions. Growing recognition in the West that animals feel represents a new age of enlightenment
All living organisms are sentient
Get PDFWe argue that all living organisms, from the simplest unicellular prokaryotes to Homo sapiens, have valenced experiences—feelings as states of preference—and are capable of cognitive representations. Bacteria can learn, form stable memories, and communicate, hence solve problems. Rowan et al.\u27s statement that Subjective feelings are just that — subjective — and are available only to the animal (or human) experiencing them is true but irrelevant. When we see a fish flopping about in the bottom of a boat we immediately recognize suffering without having a glimpse of the nature of piscine distress. Some controlled anthropomorphism can go a long way without stumbling into the philosophical first person problem. Incumbent on a species with such gifts are countervailing responsibilities
Revisiting Donald Griffin, founder of cognitive ethology
Get PDFDonald Griffin’s writings, beginning with The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), strove to persuade scientists to study the possibility of animal sentience, the basis of Rowan et al.’s efforts to promote animal well-being. Facing great hostility (but also some acceptance) for his ideas, Griffin initially avoided animal welfare advocacy, fearing it would further undermine his efforts to gain recognition of animal sentience. In later years, however, he began to ponder the ethical implications of animal sentience, intending to study wild elephants’ communication and social behavior to better understand their experienced life and apply it to improving conservation methods. As he recognized, ethical considerations require strategic prioritizing
Does the sentience framework imply all animals are sentient?
Get PDFThe eight criteria proposed in Crump et al.’s framework for evaluating pain sentience in decapod crustaceans are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to markers that could increase confidence in an animal’s sentience more generally. Some of the commentaries have already pointed out that pain is only one kind of sentience (Souza Valente). It has also already been pointed out that there are other criteria for pain that could be usefully added to the framework’s eight (Burrell). This expansive thinking about criteria that can be used to increase confidence in sentience raisess the question: in an expansive framework for evaluating sentience generally, will there be any animals we could study where confidence wouldn’t be increased were we to use a general model of evaluating sentience via marker frameworks? I consider how the general approach could increase confidence in the sentience of animals such as C. elegans and Porifera
One Health for the SDGs but also for Nature and Animals
Get PDFEarlier this year, an open-access paper on One Health and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) was published (in the CABI One Health journal). The authors (from institutions in the USA, Sweden,and Brazil) noted that human, non-human, and environmental health are linked in the One Health framework. The authors also argued that animals matter for sustainable development, although animal welfare is currently not included in sustainable development governance. For example, they state that “the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes 17 goals and 169 targets on topics ranging fromhunger and poverty to peace and justice.” Several SDG targets address biodiversity and the environmentbut mostly reference nature’s value to promote human benefit rather than being of intrinsic value itself.Also, none of the targets reference animal welfare. The situation for the environment and animals may be changing. A recent resolution by the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) recommends producing a report that aims to improve human understanding of the nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable developmen
Recent Surge in Monkeypox in Non-Endemic Countries: Concern for Public Health?
Get PDFAs the world learns to live with the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, another zoonosis caused by a monkeypox virus (a cousin of smallpox) is appearing in America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Australia, having spread from its traditional “habitat” in Central and West Africa. Since May of this year, more than 4,000 monkeypox cases have been recorded in more than 40 countries (includingAustralia, Western Europe, and North America) where the disease is not usually found. Nonetheless, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) has decided that this latest monkeypox outbreak does not warrant the status of a PHEIC event (a Public Health Emergency of International Concern[i])
Do Emotional Support Animals Actually Help?
Get PDFU.S. federal law allows people with mental-health disorders to have emotional support animals in college dorms and no-pet apartments. This legislation assumes there are proven benefits of of living with emotional support animals. There is no substantial research that supports the use of emotional support animals in public housing or for air travel
Operationalising One Health-One Welfare
Get PDFThe World Health Organisation (WHO) describes One Health as an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes. WHO considers the ‘One Health’ approach to be “critical to addressing health threats in the animal, human and environment interface”
Can Bereaved Pet Owners Suffer Prolonged Grief Disorder?
Get PDFProlonged grief disorder has recently been added as a new diagnostic category to the American Psychology Association\u27s manual of mental illnesses, usually referred to as the DSM. However, the diagnosis refers to grief at the loss of a person. It excludes grief at the loss of a companion animals and yet there is evidence that people who lose a cherished pet may also experience prolonged grief disorder. Given that over 70 million US households include pets, if even a small percentage of people in those households experience prolonged grief disorder at the death of a pet, then the category would cover several hundred thousand people a year
World Happiness Report 2022
Get PDFThe first World Happiness Report (WHR) was issued in 2012. Therefore, this year (2022) is the tenth anniversary of that event. The WHR founders’ statements in the opening chapter of WHR 2022 assert; 1. The true measure of progress is the happiness of people. 2. We can now reliably measure such happiness, and 3. We have a considerable understanding of how to increase happiness. Given such knowledge, the report notes that “it is now possible for policy-makers to make people’s happiness the goal of their policies.