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Nov. 16th, 2024|12:41 pm |
Animal sentience is often thought of as a complex, poorly defined, subjective, and abstract concept, raising as many questions as it does answers. If you talk to different people about their views on animal sentience you will undoubtedly get various responses. If you asked a pet owner whether animals have feelings, they would regale you with stories of when their dog comforts them, or is proud of himself when he opens a closed door. A farmer who works closely with his or her animals may tell you about how cow number 19 likes being tickled behind her ears, and how cow number 25 is the shy and cautious one. But then you may talk to someone who sees animals only in terms of their monetary value. Animals to such people are not living, sentient beings, they represent commodities. It is far easier for them to see animals in this way but far less convenient for them to consider their ability to suffer or their need to experience positive emotions like pleasure. How people perceive animals is never black and white, attitudes may depend on the species in question, and the animals perceived mental ability [47]. However, when you consider how we treat the animals we farm for food, experiment upon, or use for entertainment, you can clearly see how important these perspectives are, and which the dominant ones are.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159106001110 |
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