Sentience and Animal Welfare

200 Pages·2014·2.818 MB·English

by  Donald M.  Broom

Sentience and Animal Welfare
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Sentience and Animal Welfare
Donald M. Broom
Professor of Animal Welfare (Emeritus)
Centre for Anthrozoology and Animal Welfare
Department of Veterinary Medicine
and St Catharine’s College
University of Cambridge, UK
CABI is a trading name of CAB International
CABI CABI
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Wallingford Suite 1002
Oxfordshire OX10 8DE Boston, MA 02111
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Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone] (toll free)
Fax: [phone] E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cabi.org
© D.M. Broom 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Broom, Donald M., author.
Sentience and animal welfare / Donald M. Broom.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-78064-403-5 (hbk : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-78064-404-2 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. Emotions in animals. 2. Consciousness in animals. 3. Animal welfare. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Animal Welfare. 2. Bioethical Issues. 3. Consciousness. 4. Emotions.
5. Perception. 6. Sensation. HV 4708]
QL785.27.B76 2014
591.5--dc23
2014006675
ISBN-13: 978 1 78064 403 5 (hbk)
978 1 78064 404 2 (pbk)
Commissioning editors: Sarah Hulbert and Julia Killick
Editorial assistant: Alexandra Lainsbury
Production editor: Tracy Head
Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry, India.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Glossary xi
1 The Qualities That Make Up Sentience 1
1.1 Why Are We Interested in Sentience? 1
1.2 How Do People View Species Perceived
to be Like Us or Unlike Us? 4
1.3 The Concept of Sentience 5
1.4 Definitions and Descriptions of Components
of Sentience 6
2 Ethics, Morality and Attitudes 8
2.1 Ethics 8
2.2 Morality, Selfishness and Altruism 9
2.3 Obligations 13
2.4 Rights 15
2.5 Freedom 16
2.6 Brief History of Attitudes to Animals 18
3 Animal Welfare Science: History and Concepts 22
3.1 The History of Animal Welfare Science 22
3.1.1 Before 1960 22
3.1.2 The 1960s and 1970s 24
3.1.3 Post-1980 25
3.2 The Origins of the Animal Welfare Concept 27
3.3 Welfare in Relation to Other Concepts 32
3.3.1 Adaptation and welfare 32
3.3.2 Stress in relation to welfare 32
3.3.3 Needs and welfare 33
3.3.4 Health in relation to welfare 33
3.3.5 Naturalness and welfare 34
3.3.6 Welfare and well-being 34

v
vi Contents
3.3.7 Quality of life in relation to welfare 34
3.3.8 Welfare and ‘a life worth living’ 35
3.4 Welfare in Relation to Sentience 35
4 Brain Complexity and Cognitive Ability 37
4.1 Brain Function and Brain Size 37
4.2 Biology, Brain Function, Brain Structure
and Cognitive Ability 38
4.3 Learning 40
4.4 Discrimination and Recognition 41
4.5 Cognition 42
4.6 Range of Cognitive Abilities 43
4.7 Metacognition 50
4.8 Innovation 50
4.9 Cognitive Bias 52
4.10 Variability Among Individuals
and Within Populations 54
4.11 Capabilities for Morality 55
4.12 The Dangers of Occam’s Razor 56
5 Feelings and Emotions 57
5.1 Affect, Feelings and Emotions 57
5.2 Physiological Systems of Emotions and Feelings 60
5.3 Mood 61
5.4 Cognition in Relation to Emotion 62
5.5 Pain 64
5.6 Fear 68
5.7 Anxiety 68
5.8 Various Pleasures 68
5.9 Social Affection 69
5.10 Guilt, Anger and Rage 69
5.11 Welfare in Relation to Feelings 71
6 Awareness and Consciousness 72
6.1 The Meaning of Awareness 72
6.2 Reporting Perception and Blind-sight 74
6.3 Consciousness 75
6.4 Assessing Own Actions and the Actions of Others 77
6.5 Concepts of the Future 78
6.6 Concept of Self 80
6.7 Awareness of Others Having Concepts 82
6.8 Evolution of Awareness 83
7 Motivation and Needs 84
7.1 Motivation 84
7.2 Needs 85
7.3 Freedoms 86
Contents vii
7.4 Welfare in Relation to Needs 87
7.5 Assessing What is Important to Animals 87
8 Welfare Assessment 90
8.1 Positive and Negative Welfare, Short-term
and Long-term Assessment 90
8.2 Behavioural, Physiological and Clinical Indicators
of Poor Welfare 91
8.2.1 Physiological measures 91
8.2.2 Behavioural measures 95
8.2.3 Disease, injury, movement
and growth measures 97
8.3 Pain Assessment 98
8.4 Indicators of Good Welfare Including Pleasure,
Happiness, Good Health 101
8.4.1 Reporting on happiness,
or direct measurement? 101
8.4.2 Using information about preferences 101
8.4.3 Play and normal behaviour 101
8.4.4 Direct measures of good welfare 103
8.5 Integration of Welfare Measures 104
8.6 Risk and Benefit Analysis in Animal Welfare 105
8.7 Welfare Reports and Welfare Outcome Indicators
for Use in Inspection 106
9 Sentience During Development, Brain Damage
and Old Age 108
9.1 Introduction: Pre- and Post-sentience 108
9.2 Sentience in Embryos and Fetuses 109
9.2.1 Some developmental differences 109
9.2.2 Neural and pain system development 110
9.2.3 Awareness in the fetus 111
9.3 Sentience in Young Individuals 113
9.4 Sentience in Brain-damaged and Old Individuals 113
9.5 Welfare During Development, After Brain Damage
and During Old Age 114
10 Ethical Decisions About Humans and Non-humans 116
10.1 Ethical Decisions when Sentience has been Evaluated 116
10.2 Summary of Which Animals are Sentient and When 117
10.3 Animal Protection 119
10.4 Conclusions About Sentience Research
and Which Animals to Protect 121
10.5 Protection of the Unborn Child and Other Young 122
10.6 Protection of Brain-damaged and Senile Persons
and Other Animals 123
viii Contents
11 Sustainability, Welfare Attitudes and Education 125
11.1 Sustainability 125
11.2 Changing Ideas About Product Quality 126
11.3 Attitudes to Animal Welfare and Consumer Pressure 126
11.4 Welfare of Wild Animals, Including Pests 128
11.5 GM Animals: Welfare and Public Attitudes 131
11.6 Welfare Legislation 136
11.7 Welfare and Codes of Practice 139
11.8 Education: Animal Abilities and Welfare 140
11.8.1 Teaching animal welfare:
non-university courses 140
11.8.2 Teaching animal welfare: university courses 140
References 143
Author Index 169
Subject index 179
Preface
People spend much time writing and discussing clever or stupid actions, learning
and memory, suffering or feeling happy, and how to deal with the various
aspects of the world in which we live. These are the subjects of this book.
Sentience is a term used in relation to human questions, such as when a fetus
or baby is fully functioning, and how we decide when brain function has been
lost in the brain-damaged or old (Chapter 9). However, its most widespread use
concerns the abilities of various animal species. How clever are the animals
and what can they feel?
An aim of the book is to counter widely stated human prejudices. One is
the idea that humans are very different from all other animals. Hence many
similarities are described. Another is that mammals have brains that func-
tion at a completely different level from those of birds, fish or invertebrate ani-
mals such as octopus, squid, lobsters or spiders. The abilities and functioning
described in Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 on cognition, feelings, awareness and motiv-
ation show more close parallels across the range of animals than many people
would expect.
A biological interpretation of words is used in the book because serious
errors in everyday life can come from misunderstandings when words about
body and brain are misused. For example, since people are animals, statements
here refer to humans and to non-human animals. The wording: ‘humans and
other animals’ is used rather than ‘humans and animals’. The term ‘animal’
is used erroneously by many people to refer only to mammals, whereas all
biologists use ‘animal’ for birds, fish, insects, molluscs, worms, jellyfish, etc.
Also, there is much reference to the brain in this book, but little reference to
the mind, because, as explained, there are not two distinct sets of functions
and so the word ‘mind’ is scientifically redundant. There is also explanation of
why feelings and knowledge do not come from the heart or the gut. A glossary
defining the concepts used in the book is included.
The concept of welfare is of key importance in our lives and in that of
other animals. Hence the concept and its history are explained in Chapters 1
and 3, and the rapid developments in animal welfare science are chronicled
in Chapter 8. The assessment of welfare and how the methodology is being

ix