Sentience and Animal Welfare

by Donald M Broom

Description

Sentience – the ability to feel, perceive and experience – is central to the animal welfare debate as it raises the question of whether animals experience suffering in life and death. This book explores and answers these questions in an objective way, based on the latest research and empirical evidence. Beginning with an introduction to sentience, the book investigates why we are so interested in sentience, when, as a species, humans became sentient and how it has changed over time. The book defines aspects of sentience such as consciousness, memory and emotions, and discusses brain complexity in detail. Looking at sentience from a developmental perspective, it analyses when in an individual’s growth sentience can be said to appear and uses evidence from a range of studies investigating embryos, foetuses and young animals to form an enlightening overview of the subject. With a full chapter covering ethical decisions such as animal protection and experimentation, this book is not only an invaluable resource for researchers and students of animal welfare and biology, but also an engaging and informative read for veterinarians and the general public.

Rights Information

Foreign rights available. We will positively consider translations of abridged versions of this title. If you wish to receive image and/or design files, please let us know at the beginning of the process and when making an offer. CABI reserves the right to charge an additional fee for such requests, which will be added to the overall fee, and to refuse such requests if the files are not available or for any other reason.

Endorsements

Broom (veterinary medicine, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) takes readers on a short, clear, authoritative journey through animal sentience and what it means in terms of how humans value and treat animals. He quickly outlines what sentience and ethics are, followed by a little history of people's views of animals. He discusses the four bases for animal sentience-cognition, affect, awareness (which he equates to consciousness), and motivation. He draws on wide, up-to-date coverage of research on these areas across the phyla, including cephalopods, fish, and crustaceans (23 pages of references after 141 pages of text). Having set a foundation, Broom then discusses how these apply to animal welfare, in many cases using domesticated animals as examples and evaluating how physiological and behavioral measures can be used to study areas such as pain and wellness, including evaluating what is important to an animal. There is an interesting assessment of sentience across the life-span and when human and nonhuman animals should be protected. Broom ends up by pointing out that public attitudes, as exemplified in the Canadian seal hunt and genetically modified animals, can change practice and feels that public education is the ultimate answer to good animal welfare. --J. A. Mather, University of Lethbridge Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Bibliographic Information