REPRESENTATIVE OF
My mind boggled when, on the 16th June 2024, the BBC published an article telling us that some of the world’s top scientists are locked in disagreement
about whether animals are conscious or not. The article went on to say there are ‘murmurings’ of ‘a realistic possibility’ of consciousness in animals!!
2024:
Becoming CONSCIOUS of the (seemingly) OBVIOUS!
by Louise van der Merwe
Published 02 August 2024
Isn’t animal consciousness obvious!?
As editor of Animal Voice, I asked Dr Bert Mohr, leading South African veterinarian and Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer of Scientific Veterinary Consulting, to give us perspective on what seems to be anachronistic endeavour in the 21st Century.
Animal Voice:
Dr Mohr, how is it possible that scientists are still grappling
with whether animals are conscious or not? Can you give us
a perspective that I’m somehow missing here?
Dr Mohr:
Yes indeed. Let’s clarify the terms sentient and conscious for a start. Sentience refers to the capacity to have feelings and sensations that include the ability to experience positive and negative emotions such as pleasure, pain, joy and suffering.
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Consciousness is a broader concept. It includes sentience but also includes higher-level processes such as self-awareness, intentionality, problem-solving, and awareness of one’s own existence.
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Scientists broadly agree that mammals as well as birds, reptiles, amphibians and (some) fish are sentient. In other words there is strong scientific evidence to support sentience in all vertebrates. Sentience is also evident in some invertebrates like the Cephalopod family (octopus, nautilus and squid) and the Decapod family (crayfish, crabs, lobsters and prawns). These creatures experience pain, remember pain and try to avoid pain, so sentience is accepted in vertebrates and in some invertebrates.
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But scientists would like to discoverer whether, in evolutionary terms, the common ancestor to all life was already sentient. If it was then it is likely that sentience is part of the animal kingdom, and is found in the entire Tree of Life including insects, worms, spiders and so on.
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And we don’t yet know the answer to this question. If sentience is in the roots of the Tree of Life, then all animals are sentient. If sentience evolved where the vertebrate branch and invertebrate branch of the Tree of Life diverge, then it’s possible that not all animals are sentient. And if this is so, there is a further question: If the common ancestor was not sentient, then did the branch of invertebrates develop sentience along the evolutionary pathway, or did they remain unsentient.​
​Animal Voice:
How do humans derive advantage from this knowledge?
Dr Mohr:
It affects us in a big way. There are significant potential conflicts of interest if humans are forced by science to have to consider the sentience of animals! Indeed, the crux of the matter is that the moment we agree that animals are sentient, we have to give them moral consideration. Take, for example, a rock. Most people do not hold the view that a rock is sentient. Rocks cannot be harmed. They cannot be wronged. I can feel free to crush a rock without worrying about whether I am doing it harm. But if the rock, or river, or plant, or earthworm can suffer because of my actions, then my actions may harm it, and I owe it moral consideration.
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Animal Voice:
But even though our own Constitution acknowledges animal sentience, we give animals virtually no consideration at all. Are you saying that we are going to be forced to evolve our laws to incorporate consideration for animals now that we acknowledge their sentience?
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Dr Mohr:
Yes, this has already begun. For example the Animal Law Project has just launched its Manifesto for Transforming Animal Protection in South Africa (See animallawproject.org.za)
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However, the concept of consciousness takes this whole idea a bit further. Being conscious means that you are aware of your own existence. Consciousness involves self-awareness, intentionality, rationality. This is very difficult to measure scientifically. Sentience is much easier to test.
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For example, it is fairly easy to test if a crab feels pain, but how do we determine if the crab knows that he or she is existing on planet earth as a conscious being? The mirror test is often spoken about. Would the crab recognise himself or herself in a mirror? Some animals do recognise themselves in a mirror, like Great Apes, parrots, crows, dolphins and elephants. This is consciousness, not sentience, even though they are closely related.
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Animal Voice:
So you’re saying that the BBC article is really important and an insight into the future for mankind’s relationship with animals?
Dr Mohr:
The BBC article reflects a tremendous step forward for our relationship with animals. It points to the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness signed earlier this year, stating that it is “irresponsible” to ignore the possibility of animal consciousness.
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This declaration follows a scientific review in 2021 in which 1000 scientific studies revealed that the balance of evidence supports that many invertebrates are sentient.
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What these scientists are saying is that there is a realistic possibility that sentience and consciousness are basically the same thing so why are we splitting hairs? Must a fish recognise himself in a mirror before we acknowledge that he is conscious?
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Animal Voice:
We thank you.
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The Ignorance of influencers down the centuries led to our abominable treatment of animals:
13th Century
Italian theologian and scholar, Thomas Aquinas denied that animals are objects of moral concern for two reasons:
(1) God made animals exclusively for human use;
(2) Animals cannot reason.
17th Century
French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, Rene Descartes wrote that animals’ lack of language “shows not merely that the beasts have less reason than men, but that they have no reason at all”. He introduced the idea of animals as ‘automata’ or machines.
19th Century
One of the first rays of light came in the 19th Century when naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin wrote that sympathy for ‘all sentient beings’ is perhaps the highest virtue yet attained by ‘man’. See Descent, pp. 75-77, 101 https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letters/darwins-works-letters/descent
21st Century
Justice for Animals – The Lived Reality for Animals in the 21st Century Manifesto for Transforming Animal Protection in South Africa.