faq #6, do animals really suffer?
The next question in our FAQ series would seem to have a fairly straightforward answer to just about anyone who has spent quality time with animals, let alone professionally studied them with integrity. But in addition to honest questions about the nature of animal senses and emotion, they are after all different creatures than ourselves, you might be surprised to hear some of the nonsense that has been offered to disclaim the full reality of animal pain and suffering, often in defense of one inhumane practice or another.
Please know the point of asking this question and posting this particular series isn't to expose you to a range of shocking reports of cruelty or difficult images. It would be impossible to discuss the reality of animal suffering without alluding to some of the hardships which they face, often (though not always) directly related to human abuse and negligence. But this is meant to be a more general introduction to the subject, with principles that can be applied to more specific aspects of animal existence and their treatment by humans.
The following is a basic response to the question from our FAQ page:
There has been a fair amount of debate as to whether animals actually feel pain and suffer emotionally, or if we're just projecting human characteristics onto them. But many animals, including those we interact with most, have highly developed nervous systems. And they react to pain and psychological distress, even the threat of both, in ways we would expect them to given their physiology and cognitive abilities.
It takes a lot of manipulative, and honestly shoddy, reasoning to suggest otherwise. It helps to remember that the Bible assumes animals suffer, and we know that God suffers with His creatures who are affected in so many ways by the Fall and human sin. It also helps to keep in mind that those who preach the loudest against animals' capacity to feel pain and suffer are generally those who stand to profit the most from both.
By the way, Matthew Scully offers a phenomenal, in-depth defense of a common-sense recognition of animal suffering, and a devastating critique of those who deny it, in his book Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (St. Martin's '02), specifically in his chapter "The Laws" (which you can read a fair amount of at Google Books):
It is not really our own uniqueness as rational beings that is in the balance here: It is the presumption that all creatures but us are excluded from the world of conscious thought and feeling, that their suffering is meaningless, and that our rule, therefore is absolute.
(photo of a duck being raised for foie gras courtesy Farm Sanctuary)
November 4, 2010
Reader Comments (2)
This is an important thing to address. The idea that animals don't suffer is a pretty outdated one - about a hundred years old - so its very sad if there are really people out there who still "believe" this blatant lie. There are two EXCELLENT text books on the physiology of animal suffering by PhD John Webster called "Limping Toward Eden" and "A Cool Eye Toward Eden" (neither of which are actually Christian books despite the titles). They prove beyond a shadow of doubt that animals measureably suffer through monitoring hormone levels, measuring adrenaline, observing anxiety and stereotypic behaviors, even including anorexia and self-mutilation. Anyone with a keen interest in animal science should definitely check these out! I hope to write more thorough reviews of these on my blog when I get back around to animals - probably after the holidays. God bless you Ben.
Thanks very much for sharing those resources and a bit of their findings, Lauren, I hope to look them up myself one day. I would love to share a review from you in the meantime, though! God bless you as well - Ben