Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy
Not a member yet
6329 research outputs found
Sort by
RobbinsJesse
No full texthttps://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent_gallery/1565/thumbnail.jp
Greger, Michael
No full texthttps://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent_gallery/1554/thumbnail.jp
Cao, Deborah
No full texthttps://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent_gallery/1552/thumbnail.jp
Jasinghe2
No full texthttps://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent_gallery/1498/thumbnail.jp
The Edge of Sentience by Jonathan Birch
No full textWBI’s Andrew Rowan reviews The Edge of Sentience by Jonathan Birch, a groundbreaking book on sentience across animals, humans, and AI, offering guidance into ethical and policy considerations
Communicating with Animals
No full textArtificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing our understanding of animal communication, enabling deeper connections between humans and other species. From decoding whale songs to interpreting parrot speech, AI opens new avenues for interspecies dialogue
Combatting Wildlife Smuggling
No full textThe illegal wildlife trade, valued at tens of billions annually, presents a major conservation and law-enforcement challenge; this article examines how novel forensic techniques (e.g. biometric hand-print matching, DNA analysis) are empowering authorities to trace trafficked specimens and prosecute operators. It argues that while promising, these methods require further development, broader deployment, and stronger legal frameworks to truly shift the balance against organized wildlife crime
Positive Animal Welfare
No full textOver the past decades, animal welfare science has progressed from focusing on alleviating suffering toward incorporating the study of positive affective states and flourishing experiences. This article reviews the concept of Positive Animal Welfare, its historical roots, recent scientific advances, and emerging metrics (e.g., Welfare Footprint) to support its integration into policy, research, and sustainability frameworks
Consciousness of octopuses—on their own terms
No full textBecause cephalopods are so different from the vertebrate lineage, their possible consciousness must be assessed on the basis of their heritage and abilities. Cephalopods have evolved in water, a denser medium than air, and their perception is adapted to it. They have inherited the molluscan mantle cavity and hydrostatic muscle type, which has led to a more distributed motor control system despite a centralized brain, and have evolved a completely novel skin display system. Using these abilities, octopuses can form concepts, plan for the future, generate a cognitive map, and self-monitor for apparent pain and manipulate communication. Most cephalopods use the skin display system fairly automatically to deceive potential predators, although cuttlefish and squid also communicate with conspecifics. They do not appear to have the social sophistication to form a Theory of Mind when using it, but some squid can divorce the skin output from its motivational background sufficiently to produce two separately motivated displays in different directions at the same time. Thus, the cephalopods do appear to be moving towards consciousness, but on their own terms rather than our vertebrate terms
Breaking down the barriers to animal-free research
No full textFor centuries, animals have been used in research due to their genetic and physiological similarities to humans. However, significant differences exist between humans and animals, which have the potential to confound results obtained from such experiments. These differences result in reduced translatability of animal data to humans, which is a major contributing factor to the 92% failure rate for novel therapies in clinical trials. Advances in scientific research have enabled the development of human-focused New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which include in silico and 3-D in vitro models. By harnessing these novel approaches, greater predictive power for human biology, human diseases and assessment of novel therapies could be achieved. However, several obstacles remain to their wider adoption, including potential financial constraints, publication bias, and some concerns about the reliability of NAMs due to the novelty of this field, compared to animal studies. Here, we outline the differences between humans and animals used in research, discuss in detail the obstacles to the greater adoption of NAMs in research, and provide recommendations on how to accelerate a shift toward human-focused research