The idea that animals Animals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently. All animals are also might not experience pain Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. It is the feeling common to such experiences as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone" and suffering Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of occurrence usually compound that of as human beings do traces back at least to the 17th-century French philosopher, René Descartes René Descartes , (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form; adjectival form: "Cartesian"), was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of, who argued that animals lack consciousness Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, or awareness, or wakefulness, or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, philosophers note :.[1][2][3] Bernard Rollin Bernard E. Rollin is an American philosopher who specializes in animal rights and animal consciousness. He is a professor of philosophy, animal sciences, and biomedical sciences at Colorado State University of Colorado State University, the principal author of two U.S. federal laws regulating pain relief for animals, writes that researchers remained unsure into the 1980s as to whether animals experience pain, and veterinarians trained in the U.S. before 1989 were simply taught to ignore animal pain.[4] In his interactions with scientists and other veterinarians, Bernard Rollin was regularly asked to "prove" that animals are conscious, and to provide "scientifically acceptable" grounds for claiming that they feel pain.[4] Some authors say that the view that animals feel pain differently is now a minority view.[1] Academic reviews of the topic are more equivocal, noting that although the argument that animals have at least simple conscious thoughts and feelings has strong support,[5] some critics continue to question how reliably animal mental states can be determined.[2][6]

Contents

Pain in different species

Hooked: Galapagos shark

The presence of pain in an animal, or another human for that matter, cannot be known for sure, but it can be inferred through physical and behavioral reactions.[7] Specialists currently believe that all vertebrates can feel pain, and that certain invertebrates, like the octopus, might too.[8][9]

Animal protection advocates have raised concerns about the suffering of fish caused by angling. In light of recent research, some countries, like Germany, have banned specific types of fishing, and the RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. It is the oldest and largest animal welfare organisation in the world and is one of the largest charities in the UK. Queen Elizabeth II is its patron (which has authority in England and Wales) now formally prosecutes individuals who are cruel to fish.[10]

As for other animals, plants, or other entities, their ability to feel physical pain is at present a question beyond scientific reach, since no mechanism is known by which they could have such a feeling. In particular, there are no apparent nociceptors A nociceptor is a sensory receptor that responds to potentially damaging stimuli by sending nerve signals to the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain in groups such as plants, fungi, and most insects[11][12][13] (one known exception being the fruit fly).[14]

In vertebrates Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata, chordates with backbones or spinal columns. About 58,000 species of vertebrates have been described. Vertebrata is the largest subphylum of chordates, and contains many familiar groups of large land animals. Vertebrates comprise cyclostomes, bony fish, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles,, endogenous opioids An opioid is a chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. The receptors in these organ systems mediate both the beneficial effects and the side effects of opioids are neurochemicals that moderate pain by interacting with opiate receptors. Opioid peptides and opiate receptors occur naturally in crustaceans, and although “at present no certain conclusion can be drawn,”[15] some have interpreted their presence as an indication that lobsters may be able to experience pain.[15][16]

Veterinary medicine The field of veterinary medicine is a highly competitive yet under employed field of medicine. Today's veterinarians are doctors who are highly educated to protect both the health of animals and humans. The skills of highly qualified veterinarians are in constant demand and job opportunities within this field are endless. In order to be considered uses, for actual or potential animal pain, the same analgesics An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain (achieve analgesia). The word analgesic derives from Greek an- ("without") and algos ("pain"). Analgesic drugs act in various ways on the peripheral and central nervous systems; they include paracetamol (para-acetylaminophenol, also known in the US as and anesthetics An anesthetic is a drug that causes anesthesia—reversible loss of sensation. These drugs are generally administered to facilitate surgery. A wide variety of drugs are used in modern anesthetic practice. Many are rarely used outside of anesthesia, although others are used commonly by all disciplines. Anesthetics are categorized in to two classes: as used in humans.[17]

Fish

Main article: Pain in fish

Animal protection advocates have raised concerns about the possible suffering of fish caused by angling. In light of recent research, some countries, like Germany, have banned specific types of fishing, and the British RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. It is the oldest and largest animal welfare organisation in the world and is one of the largest charities in the UK. Queen Elizabeth II is its patron now formally prosecutes individuals who are cruel to fish.[10]

Crustaceans

Main article: Pain in crustaceans

The question of whether or not crustaceans Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm (0.004 in), to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 14 ft (4.3 m) and a mass can experience pain is unresolved. One paper holds that lobsters' opioids may "mediate pain in the same way" as in vertebrates.[16]

Laboratory animals

See also: Animal testing regulations Experiments on vertebrate animals in the European Union are subject to Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of Animals used for Experimental and other scientific purposes, adopted in 1986. There is considerable variation in the manner member countries choose to exercise the directive: compare, for example, legislation from Sweden, The

The extent to which animal testing Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals are used annually—from zebrafish to non-human primates. Invertebrates, mice, rats, birds, fish, frogs, and animals not yet weaned are not causes pain and suffering in laboratory animals is the subject of much debate.[18] Marian Stamp Dawkins defines "suffering" in laboratory animals as the experience of one of "a wide range of extremely unpleasant subjective (mental) states."[19] The United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food. It aims to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers, promote agricultural trade and production, work to assure food safety, protect natural resources, defines a "painful procedure" in an animal study as one that would "reasonably be expected to cause more than slight or momentary pain or distress in a human being to which that procedure was applied."[20] Some critics argue that, paradoxically, researchers raised in the era of increased awareness of animal welfare Animal welfare is the physical and psychological state of non-human animals. The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights may be inclined to deny that animals are in pain simply because they do not want to see themselves as people who inflict it.[21] Animal research with the potential to cause pain is regulated by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 The Animals Act 1986 (A(SP)A 86) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1986 c. 14) passed in 1986, which regulates the use of laboratory animals in the UK. The Act permits experiments to be carried out on animals, including procedures involving vivisection, if certain criteria are met. The 1986 Act is the UK implementation of the in the UK, and by the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 The Animal Welfare Act was signed into law in 1966. It is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers. Other laws, policies, and guidelines may include additional species coverage or specifications for animal care and use, but all refer to the Animal Welfare in the US.

In the UK, research projects are classified as "mild", "moderate", and "substantial" in terms of the suffering the researchers conducting the study say they may cause; a fourth category of "unclassified" means the animal was anesthetized and killed without recovering consciousness. In December 2001, 39 percent (1,296) of project licenses in force were classified as "mild", 55 percent (1,811) as "moderate", two percent (63) as "substantial", and 4 percent (139) as "unclassified".[22]

In the US, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals defines the parameters for animal testing regulations. It states "The ability to experience and respond to pain is widespread in the animal kingdom...Pain is a stressor and, if not relieved, can lead to unacceptable levels of stress and distress in animals."[23] The Guide states that the ability to recognize the symptoms of pain in different species is essential for the people caring for and using animals. Accordingly, all issues of animal pain and distress, and their potential treatment with analgesia and anesthesia, are required regulatory issues for animal protocol approval.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Carbone, Larry. '"What Animal Want: Expertise and Advocacy in Laboratory Animal Welfare Policy. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 149.
  2. ^ a b The Ethics of research involving animals Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Accessed 27 February 2008
  3. ^ Talking Point on the use of animals in scientific research, EMBO reports 8, 6, 2007, pp. 521–525
  4. ^ a b Rollin, Bernard. The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain, and Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. xii, 117-118, cited in Carbone 2004, p. 150.
  5. ^ Griffin DR, Speck GB (2004) "New evidence of animal consciousness" Anim. Cogn. volume 7 issue 1 pages=5–18 PMID 14658059
  6. ^ Allen C (1998) Assessing animal cognition: ethological and philosophical perspectives J. Anim. Sci. volume 76 issue 1 pages 42-7 PMID 9464883
  7. ^ Abbott FV, Franklin KB, Westbrook RF (January 1995). "The formalin test: scoring properties of the first and second phases of the pain response in rats". Pain 60 (1): 91–102. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1016/0304-3959(94)00095-V. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 7715946. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0304-3959(94)00095-V.
  8. ^ "Do Invertebrates Feel Pain?", The Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, The Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch – represented by her governor general – the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and organisation. The governor general summons Web Site, accessed 11 June 2008.
  9. ^ Jane A. Smith (1991). "A Question of Pain in Invertebrates". ILAR Journal 33 (1-2). http://dels.nas.edu/ilar_n/ilarjournal/33_1_2/V33_1_2Question.shtml.
  10. ^ a b Leake, J. “Anglers to Face RSPCA Check,” The Sunday Times – Britain, 14 March 2004
  11. ^ DeGrazia D, Rowan A (1991) Pain, suffering, and anxiety in animals and humans Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Volume 12, Number 3, pages 193-211
  12. ^ Lockwood JA (1987) The Moral Standing of Insects and the Ethics of Extinction The Florida Entomologist, Volume 70, Number 1, pages 70-89
  13. ^ C. H. Eisemann, W. K. Jorgensen, D. J. Merritt, M. J. Rice, B. W. Cribb, P. D. Webb and M. P. Zalucki (1984) Do insects feel pain? — A biological view. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 40: 1420-1423
  14. ^ Tracey, J., W. Daniel, R. I. Wilson, G. Laurent, and S. Benzer. 2003. painless, a Drosophila gene essential for nociception. Cell 113: 261-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(03)00272-1
  15. ^ a b L. Sømme (2005). "Sentience and pain in invertebrates: Report to Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety". Norwegian University of Life Sciences The Norwegian University of Life Sciences is a public university located in Ås, Norway. Established as an agricultural school in 1859, it became a scientific university college (vitenskapelig høgskole) in 1897 and received university status in 2005, Oslo Oslo (Norwegian pronunciation: [ùʃlu] or [ùslu]) is the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania (briefly also spelt Kristiania). In 1925 the city reclaimed its original.
  16. ^ a b Cephalopods and decapod crustaceans: their capacity to experience pain and suffering. Advocates for Animals. 2005. http://www.advocatesforanimals.org.uk/pdf/crustreport.pdf.
  17. ^ Viñuela-Fernández I, Jones E, Welsh EM, Fleetwood-Walker SM (September 2007). "Pain mechanisms and their implication for the management of pain in farm and companion animals". Vet. J. 174 (2): 227–39. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1016/j.tvjl.2007.02.002. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 17553712. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1090-0233(07)00067-6.
  18. ^ Duncan IJ, Petherick JC. "The implications of cognitive processes for animal welfare", J. Anim. Sci., volume 69, issue 12, 1991, pp. 5017–22. pmid 1808195; Curtis SE, Stricklin WR. "The importance of animal cognition in agricultural animal production systems: an overview", J. Anim. Sci.. volume 69, issue 12, 1991, pp. 5001–7. pmid 1808193
  19. ^ Stamp Dawkins, Marian. "Scientific Basis for Assessing Suffering in Animals," in Singer, Peter Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. He specialises in applied ethics, approaching ethical issues from a secular preference utilitarian. In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave. Blackwell, 2006. p. 28.
  20. ^ Animal Welfare; Definitions for and Reporting of Pain and Distress", Animal Welfare Information Center Bulletin, Summer 2000, Vol. 11 No. 1-2, United States Department of Agriculture.
  21. ^ Carbone 2004, p. 151.
  22. ^ Ryder, Richard D. "Speciesism in the laboratory," in Singer, Peter Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. He specialises in applied ethics, approaching ethical issues from a secular preference utilitarian. In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave. Blackwell, 2006. p. 99.
  23. ^ Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, ILAR, National Research Council, 1996 copyright, pg 64

External links

Animal cognition Animal cognition is the title given to the study of the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, but has also been strongly influenced by the approach of ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology. The alternative name cognitive ethology is therefore sometimes used; and much of what
Cognition Animal communication Animal communication is any behavior on the part of one animal that has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal. The study of animal communication, sometimes called Zoosemitics has played an important part in the methodology of ethology, sociobiology, and the study of animal cognition · Comparative cognition From a biological point of view, work is being done on the brains of fruit flies that should yield techniques precise enough to allow an understanding of the workings of the human brain on a scale appreciative of individual groups of neurons rather than the more regional scale previously used. Similarly, gene activity in the human brain is better · Cognitive ethology · Neuroethology Neuroethology is the evolutionary and comparative approach to the study of animal behavior and its underlying mechanistic control by the nervous system. This interdisciplinary branch of neuroscience endeavors to understand how the central nervous system translates biologically relevant stimuli into natural behavior". For example, many bats · Emotion in animals Emotion in animals considers the question of what emotions certain species of non-human animals feel, in the sense that humans understand it. The debate concerns primarily mammals and birds, although emotions have also been postulated for other vertebrates and even for some invertebrates · Pain in animals · Observational learning Observational learning is a type of learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating novel behavior executed by others. It is argued that reinforcement has the effect of influencing which responses one will partake in, more than it influences the actual acquisition of the new response · Tool use by animals Tools are used by some animals, particularly primates, to perform simple tasks such as getting food or grooming. Originally thought to be a skill only possessed by human beings, tool use requires some level of intelligence. Primates have been observed exploiting sticks and stones to accomplish tasks. Numerous bird species have also been noted as · Vocal learning
Intelligence Bird Bird intelligence deals with the definition of intelligence and its measurement as it applies to birds. Traditionally, birds have been considered inferior in intelligence to mammals, and derogatory terms such as bird brains have been used colloquially in some cultures · Cat Cat intelligence is the considered capacity of learning, thinking, problem solving, reasoning, and adaptability possessed by the domestic cat. Intelligence in cats is demonstrated by the capacity to develop and use tools, learn new behavior techniques, apply previously acquired knowledge to new situations, communicate needs and desires within · Cephalopod Cephalopod intelligence has an important comparative aspect in our understanding of intelligence, because it relies on a nervous system fundamentally different from that of vertebrates. The cephalopod class of mollusks, particularly the Coleoidea subclass , are considered the most intelligent invertebrates and an important example of advanced · Cetacean · Dog Dog intelligence is the ability of a dog to learn, think, and solve problems. Dog trainers, owners, and researchers have as much difficulty agreeing on a method for testing canine intelligence as they do for human intelligence. One specific difficulty is confusing a breed's genetic characteristics and a dog's obedience training with intelligence · Elephant · Fish According to Culum Brown from Macquarie University, "Fish are more intelligent than they appear. In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of ‘higher’ vertebrates including non-human primates." · Hominid The evolution of human intelligence refers to a set of theories that attempt to explain how human intelligence has evolved. The question is closely tied to the evolution of the human brain, and to the emergence of human language · Primate · Swarm intelligence Swarm intelligence is a type of artificial intelligence based on the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems
List of animals by number of neurons This is a list of animals by number of neurons in their whole nervous system and the number of neurons in their brain . These numbers are estimations derived by multiplying the density of neurons in a particular animal by the average weight or mass of the animal's brain

Categories: Pain | Animals Animals are a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia. This category includes animals, their study, and their classification | Animal cruelty Categories: Abuse | Animal rights | Animal welfare

 

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