Are animals aware of their suffering? For anyone living with an animal, the answer to this question is very clear, however, what does neuroscience say about the subject?Can we make sure that science shows that animals are aware of their own suffering and that of others?
Well, since it couldn’t be any other way, the answer is “yes. “Neuroscience has strong evidence that all mammals, birds and other species are aware of their own suffering. The information is not new. In 2013, the Cambridge Declaration spoke of this issue with undeniable evidence, research continuing and confirming this truth more and more.
- Counterpart circuits have been identified.
- Both in humans and animals.
- Whose activity coincides with conscious experience.
- It seems that the neural circuits that are activated while an animal feels an emotion are the same as those that are activated in humans by the same emotion.
- Around the world they evaluate this study and agree that animals are aware of their own suffering.
Seven years ago, on 7 July 2012, renowned scientists signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which states that not only humans, but also a significant number of animals, including vertebrates and invertebrates, are sentient beings, that is, they are feeling beings, that is, they experience what is happening to them and that they have mental states that can be positive or negative to them.
There is scientific consensus that non-human animals possess the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurysiological substrates of conscious states, as well as the ability to exhibit intentional behaviors, i. e. humans are not the only ones with the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. .
Philip Low, founder and CEO of neurodiagnosis firm NeuroVigil, California; Christof Koch, Allen Institute of Brain Sciences in Seattle; David Edelman of the Institute of Neuroscience in La Jolla, California, and other prestigious neuroscientists participated in the Cambridge Declaration.
It is a clear message that confirms that the ability to have positive and negative experiences allows a being to be hurt, there is strong evidence to suggest that this is what should be taken into account when giving someone a non-discriminatory consideration.
In the meantime, studies have been conducted that have confirmed, once again, these facts. Jarrod Bailey and Shiranee Pereira presented in 2016 research on brain circuits related to emotions and empathy in dogs, a study confirming and expanding the findings of the Cambridge Declaration.
INRA, in collaboration with the European Food Safety Authority, has carried out a new updated scientific assessment of animal awareness literature. The results were presented in 2017 in Parma, Italy. This research confirms that animals have a nervous system that supports conscious processes of complex information, including negative emotions caused by harmful stimuli.
The study involves different species, including primates, corvids, rodents and ruminants, and research concludes that due to autobiographical memory observed in animals such as primates, corvids and rodents, they may have desires and goals that extend to the past and the future, which can be adversely affected by aversive experience.
Seven years after presenting strong evidence of animal awareness of their own suffering and the plettive of other studies that prove the same thing, there is no excuse for ignoring animal abuse on the grounds that they do not suffer.
Anyone who ignores and defends their right to have fun with the harm done to other living beings should look for other arguments, because science is no longer appropriate. Similarly, the right of these living beings to protection and well-being has been regulated. important resonance in the legal field, where this evidence materializes in the form of laws that will affect many other areas.
Although the study of consciousness in humans is complex, it seems that from now on, studies on human consciousness will go hand in hand with that of our fellow planetariums.