Animal (Insect) Pain Study

[Guest guest]

" Ouch, " Said the Cockroach

Symposium assesses critter consciousness

 

Do the lower animals feel pain? Scientists meeting at a London

symposium today say they sure can. Cockroaches, slugs, snails and

flies among them, the Electronic Telegraph reports.

 

According to Dr. Chris Sherwin, of the University of Bristol, the way

they tested pain in dogs, cats or chimpanzees often came up with

similar results among insects.

 

" If a chimp pulls its hand away after an electric shock, we say she

presumably must have felt an analogous subjective experience to what

we call pain, " he says. " But cockroaches, slugs and snails ... also

reacted in the same way, while tests on flies showed they could

associate a smell with receiving an electric shock. "

 

The symposium was organized by the Universities Federation for Animal

Welfare [ http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ufaw3/charity ] to debate whether and

how animals feel.

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Cockroaches, slugs and snails feel pain, study says

 

May 11, 2000

Web posted at: 2:41 PM EDT (1841 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/science.creatures.reut/index.html

 

LONDON (Reuters) -- New studies showing that slugs, snails and cockroaches

suffer pain may prompt humans to tiptoe around the animal kingdom.

 

The research, the subject of a meeting Thursday organized by the British charity

Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, boosts lobby groups that argue that

animals have emotions.

 

" People who think insects do not feel any pain may be wrong, " Dr. Stephen

Wickens of the charity told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. " Perhaps people

should think twice before reaching for the fly spray. "

 

Dr. Chris Sherwin of the University of Bristol said insects reacted much like

cats and dogs in their aversion to electric shocks.

 

" If it is a chimp, we say it feels pain, if a fly, we do not. Why? " Sherwin

said.

 

Studies carried out at Cambridge University discovered that cows can react

emotionally. Another study revealed that sheep, in defiance of their dumb image,

can distinguish one person from another.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/science.creatures.reut/index.html

 

 

 

> The symposium was organized by the Universities Federation for Animal

> Welfare http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ufaw3/ to debate whether and

> how animals feel.

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