Scientist and Expert Statements

Throughout history, philosophers and ethicists have spoken about the importance of recognizing other animals’ feelings. Today, increasingly, animal scientists and agribusiness experts are coming to acknowledge that farm animals do indeed experience feelings that deserve consideration.

A Summary of the Scientific Evidence Establishing Sentience in Farmed Animals A Farm Sanctuary Report

That Fish You Caught Was in Pain
October 8, 2006 - Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin.

Smart school of fish expose stupidity of a popular myth
November 22, 2006 - Times Online UK

In our dealings with animals, good feelings count
July 31, 2006 - Salt Lake Tribune

The World's Smartest Cow April 28, 2006 - Slate

Foxhunting shadow over 'fish feel pain' debate April 10, 2006 - Telegraph UK

All beings that feel pain deserve human rights August 6, 2005 - The Guardian

Study: Chickens Think About Future July 14, 2005 - Discovery News

Sheep like smiles say researchers June 11, 2004 - BBC News

Why did the chicken cross the road? March 18, 2005 - Times Online

More Than Meats the Eye March 17, 2005 - The Guardian

Sheep might be dumb ... but they're not stupid March 6, 2005 - The Observer

Looking for Personality in Animals, of All People March 1, 2005 - New York Times

Cows hold grudges, say scientists February 28, 2005

This Little Piggy has Depression February 26, 2005 - Independent UK

Lamb stress measured through bleats October 28, 2003

Vatican official calls for more just relationship with animals December 2000 - Catholic News Service

Pig Video Arcades Critique Life in the Pen, June 6, 1997 - Wired News

In a Pig's Eye Fall 1997 - Penn State Agriculture Magazine

“For as long as humans have domesticated animals and have articulated a social consensus ethic, it has included an ethic for the treatment of animals, albeit a very limited one. That traditional ethic has been an ethic forbidding cruelty to animals, that is, deliberate, sadistic, useless, unnecessary infliction of pain, suffering, and neglect on animals.”
   — Bernard E. Rollin, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Colorado State University, in his book Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues

“You are not handling a lump of plastic. You are handling animals with central nervous systems that feel pain and suffering.”
   — Janice Swanson, animal behavior specialist at Kansas State University, addressing a United Egg Producers meeting

“Killing an animal is not the same thing as mowing the grass. A life ends. That’s something you take seriously. What does the word ‘sacred’ mean? You do not treat it as an ordinary thing. Killing cattle is not the same as running grain through a mill.”
   — Temple Grandin, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University

“Recent research has revealed that birds are capable of complex cognition . . . it is now clear that birds have cognitive capacities equivalent to those of mammals, even primates . . . it should be realized that even vastly improved intensive systems are unlikely to meet the cognitive demands of the hitherto underestimated chicken brain. . . . With the increased knowledge of the behaviour and cognitive abilities of the chicken has come the realization that the chicken is not an inferior species to be treated merely as a food source.”
   — Lesley Rogers, Ph. D., Professor of Physiology, University of New England, in her book The Development of Brain and Behavior in the Chicken

“That’s one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. It’s like grieving, mourning––not much written about it. People don’t like to allow them thoughts or feelings.”
   — Temple Grandin, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, referring to a reaction of a mother cow when her calf was taken from her, as quoted in Oliver W. Sacks’s An Anthropologist on Mars

“Animals are sentient beings with an intrinsic worth.”
   — Margareta Winberg, Swedish Agricultural Minister, speaking to an EU conference focusing on humane treatment of animals in Europe

“As the humanlike qualities of birds and other animals penetrate deep into the consciousness of a new generation, humanity’s philosophy of life will turn around . . . ”
   — Dr. Theodore X. Barber, The Human Nature of Birds

“The very fact that companion animals are so highly regarded raises difficult issues for agricultural and performance animal doctors. Some of these animals are not markedly different in their mental capacities from many companion animals. At a time the profession seeks to promote companion animals as members of the family, to what extent must it also advocate the interests of its food, farm, and performance animal patients?. . . Nevertheless, discussions devoid of attention to animal interests are appearing with frequency in the literature espousing the model of the veterinarian as herd health consultant.”
   — Jerrold Tannenbaum, M.A., J.D., Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, in his book Veterinary Ethics: Animal Welfare, Client Relations, Competition and Collegiality

“One should not assert as a general principle that noneconomic considerations can be entertained only after probable profit maximization is calculated. Farm and performance animals are not machines or plants, but sentient beings. They can feel pain, distress, stress, and discomfort. All animals capable of experiencing negative mental states have an interest in not experiencing such states.”
   — Ibid

“There is much evidence showing that animals have sophisticated systems for regulating their lives and that they are much disturbed if they cannot control certain aspects of what happens to them. There is also good evidence for elaborate systems for detecting and responding to painful stimuli.”
   — A. F. Fraser, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and D. M. Broom, Professor of Animal Welfare at Cambridge, in their book Farm Animal Behavior and Welfare

“Humans who enslave, castrate, experiment on and fillet other animals, have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them—without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”
   — Dr. Carl Sagan & Dr. Ann Druyan, in their book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors