Animal welfare researchers are devising ways to study the emotions and subjective experiences of a wide variety of animals.
Such findings could drive changes in how we treat the animals in our care. For instance, a broad scientific review published in November 2021 by the London School of Economics and Political Science concluded that certain invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters and octopuses— that is, capable of subjective experiences such as pain and suffering. The conclusions suggest that protection afforded by animal welfare laws should extend to these creatures. One possible outcome: Updates to U.K.
To determine how content a horse is with its life, people who care for horses would typically look at things like ear position, posture and how attentive the horse is to its environment. Blood markers for anemia, indicating chronic stress, and signs of overall wellness such as appetite and immune system health could also shed light.
That started to change near the end of the 20th century. For example, in the 1980s, animal welfare researcher Marian Stamp Dawkins of the University of Oxford began probing how animals experience the world. Her studies gave creatures an opportunity to demonstrate what they wanted and how much of a cost they would pay to gain it. Researchers still ask such questions. For instance:Another approach involves investigating animals’ feelings through the lens of human psychology.
But there’s an important caveat, Mendl says. The experiment, called a judgment bias task, points to whether an animal is experiencing something in its life positively or negatively. However, the task doesn’t demonstrate something more basic — whether an animal can have subjective experiences to begin with.
Facial expressions are a more direct way to assess pain or other types of distress in animals, Leach says. His lab team and others have Researchers can often infer from an animal’s behavior that it is in pain, Leach says. But making such inferences about animals that are very different from us is more challenging. Take octopuses, for instance. Their three-lobed brain “is as far from a vertebrate as you could possibly ever get,” he says. That evolutionary distance may mean octopuses respond to stimuli differently.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Adult Animal Adoptions Cost $25 at SPCA of Texas Through April 30According to the SPCA of Texas, through April 30, all animals older than 6 months old are only $25 to adopt at the SPCA of Texas' North Texas locations.
Read more »
Animal Rights Activist Glues Hand To Table During Legislative Hearing At California State CapitolA legislative hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento was disrupted on Wednesday when an organizer from a Bay Area-based animal rights group glued her hand to a table and refused to leave.
Read more »
New discovery in animal exoskeletons leads to advances in designing construction materialsResearchers from Monash University have discovered a new design motif derived from the rigid external covering of invertebrates that may help create more damage tolerant materials for future building and construction.
Read more »
Government documents reveal CDC delayed disclosing likely COVID-19 animal spillover eventEmails shine a spotlight on a months-long delay in publicly disclosing suspected mink-to-human spread in the U.S.
Read more »
Meet the Teens Fighting Florida's “Don't Say Gay” Bill“It’s really sad to me that there are going to be kids growing up that think this isn’t okay and that love and acceptance has to look a certain way.”
Read more »
LA seeking site for wildlife rehabilitation centerThe city aims to find a space to accommodate the nonprofit L.A. Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation — known as L.A. Wild — which rehabilitates animals and releases them back into the wild.
Read more »