Sentience – noun – the capacity to experience feelings; conscious of or responsive to sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling.
Why do we need to talk about animal sentience? Because understanding it will help us to evolve the way that we treat animals. Humanity is emerging from an age during which the sentience of non-human animals has been denied, feeding the enormous (and often imaginary) gap between the felt human experience and the felt animal experience.
We have locked our dogs, bred to want nothing but human companionship, outside of our homes day and night with the bare minimum of human contact. We have overeaten animals raised in unmistakably cruel conditions, comfortably shopping for them in supermarkets whose packaging does not remind us of the contents in any way. We have insisted on positioning ourselves at the apex of sentience in relation to all other living beings and because of this decision we are the sole architects of the enormous rift between ‘us’ (humans) and ‘them’ (every other living being).
But a lot of these human behaviours are changing. Our denial of animal sentience has served us in past years to continue our often inhumane behaviour, but these days the rising culture amongst people is that of less violence, more kindness, and the human desire to reconnect with nature is so prolific it is fashionable.
We are fortunate to be living in this magnificent time in which people are taking responsibility for the things that they say and do, and awareness and therefore human consciousness (and maybe even human sentience) is growing. While we learn to do better for them we should take care to resist criticising ourselves or those around us for past actions, ideally we should be here to share new information and evolve respectfully side by side, with each others’ support.
Any person who has had a strong connection with an animal is likely to be more aware of the depth and complexities of their feeling experiences, but those who have not had the privilege of such a relationship may not have the same understanding. Fortunately, science is rising up to meet this conversation and proving again and again what many of us have known about animals’ undeniable ability to feel a range of complex emotions.
Real-world observations of animal sentience
In the 1970s, Jane Goodall, who had lived for many years with a group of Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, told a story of a Chimpanzee mother/son relationship that surely encouraged people to see animals, or at least the Chimpanzees in her story, in an emotionally relatable way. Flo was an adult female Chimpanzee who had parented a number of her offspring successfully before giving birth to Flint, a young male. Before Flint was weaned, she gave birth to Flame, who died six months later.
In the wake of her loss, she developed an abnormally dependent relationship with Flint. When Flo died, Flint showed signs of clinical depression – he couldn’t eat and didn’t want to interact with the members of his community. Flint died a few weeks after Flo died. Science can’t prove that he died from his own grief, in the same way that we cannot prove this when people share a similar story, but every element of Flint’s experience indicates that his suffering and death were a direct result of his experience of grief, evidence of the deep sense of attachment between mother and son.
Self-awareness – recognising oneself as an individual, was previously thought to be a defining characteristic of humans and proof of ‘higher intelligence’. In the 1970s, a psychologist developed the ‘mirror test’ to prove self-awareness, and by using the test we qualified chimpanzees as self-aware – no great surprises there since humans and Chimpanzees share 98.8 percent DNA.
Fast forward to recent years and science has now included onto the list not just dolphins but pigeons, orcas, orangutans, magpies, wrasse (yes, a fish!) and a number of others – and bear in mind that this list is probably only restricted due to the limits of human minds to plan the experiments that can prove self-awareness, that other species will willingly take part in. We must know that what science has proven of animal sentience is only the smallest tip of a million existing icebergs, so to speak.
Humans are slowly realising animal sentience, the realisation itself a bittersweet paradox where on the one hand we have freed ourselves to have profound connections with animals and we feel less separate, more connected, since we have more ‘same-ness’. But on the other hand we are needing to make this knowledge functional which means we need to re-look at how we behave toward them as guardians and how and why we use them for our own purposes. We need to consider their rights as sentient beings and make room for these rights to apply regardless of the context. We need to reframe a lot.
It is our awareness and understanding of animal sentience, and hence the more complex needs of animals, that drives us to do what we do at the Captive Animal Enrichment Project (CAEP). We work to address animal needs using various enrichment strategies, and using applied zoopharmacognosy we empower captive animals to self-select high-quality plant compounds and minerals for their physical and mental wellbeing, helping them cope better with their circumstances. This approach to animal welfare is built upon their natural understanding of healing plant compounds and minerals, we exist to give them access to these.
Animal sentience and science
On the 19th of April 2024 the ‘New York declaration on animal consciousness’ was signed by 88 philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists and zoologists from around the world. The declaration states the following:
First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.
Second, the empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects).
Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks.
The declaration is our formal invitation to develop new and better ways of interacting with animals, and has put animal consciousness on universal paper – even if it is just a bare-bones collection of statements, the declaration provides a growth point from which to evolve more ethical husbandry standards.
Studies by Queens University Belfast in 2021 demonstrated that fish and crustaceans exhibit clear physiological responses to pain – similar to those seen in humans and mammals. Injury or presentation of noxious stimuli triggered behavioural responses that would appear to indicate pain, and initiated the cascade of physiological responses commonly considered to be a ‘stress response’. Let’s remember here that pain has not been scientifically proven in any animal, and even proving that people are experiencing pain is scientifically difficult, we are reliant on expression or physiological signs of pain to judge whether it is present or not.
Formal studies on this subject are slower than they should be, perhaps that is because we still live in a world that considers fishing to be sport, and because many of us don’t really want to refuse ourselves the sandwich fillings that tickle our fancies. The science of animal sentience is political. It is far from being something that is objectively looked at, it impacts major industry and day-to-day human culture. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be talking about it.
In another study conducted by the University of Chicago in 2024, researchers observed empathy in rats. The experiment involved placing two rats in a cage; one with access to food and water and the other placed in a separate compartment, separating him from the food and water. The “free” rat was seen to press a lever that opened the door of the compartment, allowing the trapped rat to escape and gain access to the food. Further along in the same experiment they offered the free rat access to chocolate chips, a favourite rat snack, but he chose to free the trapped rat first and share the chocolate. When there was no confined rat the free rat ate all of the chocolate. They concluded that this demonstrates a level of empathy within rodents, and shows their desire to act on that sense of empathy, which should really change the way we see rats, don’t you think?
Why we empower animals through choice
These studies are just a drop in the ocean of research into animal sentience and complex animal behaviour. This emerging science has real-world implications for animal welfare, particularly when it comes to captive animals. We believe that respecting animal choice is crucial for ethical caregiving.
By offering a diverse choice of healing plant compounds and minerals to animals living in captivity, we empower them to self-select the elements their bodies require. This approach acknowledges an animal’s ability to actively participate in their own healing process, whether physical or psychological.
While captive environments are often necessary for providing essential care, such as in animal shelters and rehabilitation facilities, they often lack the natural diversity of plants and minerals that are available to animals in their natural spaces. Our aim is to work alongside these facilities and caregivers to improve the physical and emotional well-being of animals. We give plants back to animals, helping simulate a natural foraging experience.
The field of zoopharmacognosy is relatively young and research is ongoing. At the CAEP, we are committed to contributing to this research and working with veterinarians, animal behaviourists and ethologists, as well as dedicated and knowledgeable animal guardians to refine our understanding of animal sentience and the healing properties of plants.
We develop bespoke strategies that are tailored to the specific needs of animals within their captive environments. We continuously monitor the effectiveness of our programmes. The ethical implications of our involvement are clear; animals are not only driven by instinct but they are complex beings with rich emotional needs and an unmatched understanding of their surroundings, and we want to take the best care of them that we can.
Join us in our mission by embracing this reality and getting involved wherever possible. Whatever your background or skill set, there is something you can do to help CAEP achieve its purpose. Monetary donations, expertise and volunteering your services are the best way to help out our start-up. Please contact us today if you’d like to donate or get involved.
References:
Ben-Ami Bartal I, Decety J, Mason P. Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats. Science. 2011 Dec 9;334(6061):1427-30. doi: 10.1126/science.1210789. Erratum in: Science. 2012 Jan 27;335(6067):401. PMID: 22158823; PMCID: PMC3760221.
Elwood, R. W. (2021). Potential Pain in Fish and Decapods: Similar Experimental Approaches and Similar Results. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, Article 631151. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.631151
Andrews, K., Birch, J., Sebo, J., and Sims, T. (2024) Background to the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness. nydeclaration.com.
