Digital Commons Network^™

Heeding The Call Of Covid-19, David Wiebers, Valery Feigin

Animal Sentience

We are grateful to all of our commentators. They have provided a wide range of valuable perspectives and insights from many fields, revealing a broad interest in the subject matter. Nearly all the commentaries have helped to affirm, refine, expand, amplify, deepen, interpret, elaborate, or apply the messages in the target article. Some have offered critiques and suggestions that help us address certain issues in greater detail, including several points concerning industrialized farming and the wildlife trade. Overall, there is great awareness and strong consensus among commentators that any solution for preventing future pandemics and other related health crises must …

Wellbeing International's Overarching Concepts And 2020 Review, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

As the end of the calendar year approaches, it seems an appropriate time to revisit the overarching concepts that underpin WellBeing International’s (WBI) initiatives during its first two years. These concepts include the original foundational idea of the importance of the interconnectedness of people, animals and the environment (PAE); the problem of the “shifting baselines” syndrome; the drive to increase demand for change through institutional global awareness and individual choices leading to an increase in environment-friendly behaviors; and establishing effective global partnerships that promote collaborating, learning & adaptation (or CLA).

Impact Of Animal Agriculture On Land Use, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) has predicted that the production of animal products would have to double to meet global demand in 2050. This prediction raised questions about the negative impact of a doubling of meat production on global sustainability. A new paper by David R. Williams and colleagues, published in Nature Sustainability, concluded that future demand for food, animal feed, fiber and bioenergy crops is likely to massively escalate threats to biodiversity. This led WellBeing International to re-examine the needs of animal agriculture using an analysis on global land use published by Oxford University’s …

Does Becoming A Vegetarian Or Vegan Affect Your Love Life?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Dietary Issues

For individuals who convert to vegetarianism or veganism, there is commonly an effect on who is in one's social network and in the dietary preferences of one's romantic partner. A study of this issue found that among Polish vegetarians and vegans, their romantic partners were twelve more likely not to consume meat.

New Study Asks “Do Assistance Dogs Improve Mental Health?”, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animals and Health

A new study reviews twenty seven research reports investigating the impact of assistance dogs on the mental health of people before and after they received their assistance dogs. Almost 70% of the studies reported no impact of the assistance dogs on the mental health of the recipients while 30% reported some positive impact.

A Changing Paradigm For Global Engagement, Kathleen Rowan

WellBeing News

The global growth of the number of internet users is remarkable. According to Internet World Stats, 63.2% of the world’s population used the internet as of October 2020. If children aged 0-4 are removed from the calculation, that percentage increases to 69.3%. If children aged 0-9 are excluded, the percentage increases to 76.4%. The ability of an organization to engage the world to increase awareness of what can be done individually and collectively to effect solutions for the environment, for wildlife and habitat protection, for land conservation, and for animal and human well-being is both exciting and frightening. Internet …

Predicting The Future - Or Managing For The Future?, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

A relatively recent saying, attributed to many different people, is that “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” In contrast, Peter Drucker, the global management guru, is quoted as saying that “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” One way to “create” the future is to persuade people at all levels (whether leaders or ordinary members of the public) to drive demand that creates change. The current pandemic is projected to cost between $8-16 trillion according to a recent report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Given this …

Counting Dogs, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Data on dog numbers and dog well-being will be an important part of evaluating impact of different approaches to dog and human well-being in particular communities. The world currently has somewhere between 800 million and one billion domestic dogs. As such, they are the most common canid on the planet by at least two orders of magnitude (100-fold). Dogs are the earliest animal to have been domesticated and they have achieved their evolutionary success by hitching their wagon to humans. Recent research indicates that the domestic dog is particularly good at attending to and interpreting human expressions and emotions. Of …

Why Do People Risk Their Own Health For Their Pets?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animals and Health

It has been observed that pet owners might make poor decisions regarding their own health and safety in the face of weather disasters or pandemics. The results of one recent study of health decisions during the Covid pandemic are reviewed and commented upon.

Two Book Reviews On Animal Sheltering, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

There are very few publications that provide detailed accounts of the significant changes and developments in animal sheltering in America over the past 70 years. Andrew Rowan reviews the two books which do provide such analysis: Peter Marsh’s book, Replacing Myth with Math and Susan Houser’s book, Prodigal Pets.

An Octopus-Human Relationship, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

Andrew Rowan reviews Netflix’s new documentary "My Octopus Teacher" which explores the extraordinary relationship that developed between the filmmaker and an octopus and how, after feeling career burnout, the filmmaker’s exposure to the cold waters and teeming sea life brought him back to filming and this wonderful documentary.

Do Pets Improve Mental Health During Covid Lockdowns?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animals and Health

During Covid lockdowns, shelters and pet stores have reported an increased demand for pets to adopt or buy. It has been suggested that pets might help address loneliness during periods of social isolation. A new study in the UK found that there was a small positive effect of pet ownership during Covid lockdowns but there were also associated worries such as what might happen to the pet if the owner became ill.

Is America Really Raining Cats And Dogs?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

A review of Mark Cushing's book, Pet Nation: The Love Affair That Changed America with additional comments on why six human demographic and cultural changes could reduce American demand for pets. These socioeconomic changes include changes in population age structure, ethnicity, urbanization, living alone, fewer children and household economic shifts.

Unintended Consequences Of Covid-19 Include Increases In Child And Animal Abuse And Domestic Violence, Phil Arkow, Andrew Campbell

WellBeing News

It is now widely recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a ripple effect with unintended consequences affecting many aspects of society. One such area of great concern has been an increase in cases of family violence. What are the options for a survivor to be able to escape in a world where home is not a safe place to be during stay-at-home orders? Pets are the collateral victims of domestic violence and are harmed, threatened or killed by abusers to manipulate and control human victims.

Farm Animal Well-Being: A Brief Update, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

During the last half of the 20^th century, animal welfare moved from being a marginal issue to one that began to claim the attention of policy makers. From 1960 to 1985, laboratory animal issues were the main focus of animal advocacy in Europe and North America. But, beginning in the 1980s, farm animal well-being slowly took over as the major focus of animal advocacy organizations.

Two Rehabilitated And Released Orangutans Observed With Babies In Indonesia, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

In the midst of depressing news of declining populations, International Animal Rescue (IAR) recently reported that Shila and Desi, two female orangutans rehabilitated at the IAR conservation center in Ketapang and then released a few years ago into the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park, have given birth.

Wellbeing International Studies Repository – Providing Access To Useful Data And Important Studies, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

WellBeing International (WBI) is proud to announce the establishment of a new digital repository – the WellBeing International Studies Repository. This new Repository will provide open access to a wealth of reports and data covering the People, Animals, Environment (PAE) Triad.

WBI views this new resource as an essential component of its long-term strategy to promote global awareness and understanding of the interconnections between people, animals and the environment, and to emphasize that addressing one component of the Triad without considering the others will most likely not lead to satisfactory long-term solutions.

Intensive Animal Farming Conditions Are A Major Threat To Global Health, Cynthia Schuck-Paim

Animal Sentience

Wiebers & Feigin accurately propose that reducing the risks posed by infectious disease outbreaks and other global health challenges will depend critically on transitioning away from intensive animal farming practices. Creating the right incentive structure for this transition to happen is one of the great challenges in the years to come, but a much-needed step to ensure the health and well-being of current and future generations.

The Problem With Dogs, Harry Eckman

WellBeing News

Street dogs are ubiquitous in many parts of the world. And despite all the advances in animal welfare, we focus solely on the symptoms and do not address the root causes.

The Problem Of Loving Pets With Behavior Issues, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

A study of households dealing with pets with problem behaviors found that owners tended to fall into one of four themes for dealing with the problem animal. These were the challenges posed by caring for the animals, the emotional ups and downs (mostly downs) of dealing with the behavior, the strategies used to cope with the behavior and problems in understanding what was happening and in finding support to help deal with the issue.

When Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others, Steve Clarke

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell (2020) argue that we should attribute moral standing not only to vertebrates but also to certain invertebrates. M&P also object on ethical grounds to policies of scientific funding agencies that encourage scientists to replace vertebrates by invertebrates in research. M&P do allow that some invertebrates with brains may have lower levels of moral status than some vertebrates, but this seems to conflict with their case against replacement policies.

Consider The Agent In The Arthropod, Nicolas Delon, Peter Cook, Gordon Bauer, Heidi Harley

Animal Sentience

Whether or not arthropods are sentient, they can have moral standing. Appeals to sentience are not necessary and retard progress in human treatment of other species, including invertebrates. Other increasingly well-documented aspects of invertebrate minds are pertinent to their welfare. Even if arthropods are not sentient, they can be agents whose goals—and therefore interests—can be frustrated. This kind of agency is sufficient for moral status and requires that we consider their welfare.

Communing With Crows, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

The article "Communing with Crows" recounts Jennifer Sullivan's evolving relationship with a family of crows in Lenox, Massachusetts, highlighting their mutual recognition, synchronized routines, and the crows' role in teaching their offspring to forage for treats during her daily walks.

Do Beetles Have Experiences? How Can We Tell?, Matt Cartmill

Animal Sentience

We attribute consciousness to other humans because their anatomy and behavior resembles our own and their verbal descriptions of subjective experiences correspond to ours. Nonhuman mammals have somewhat humanlike behavior and anatomy, but without the verbal descriptions. Their sentience is therefore open to Cartesian doubt. Robot "minds" lack humanlike behavior and anatomy, and so their sentience is generally discounted no matter what sentences they generate. Invertebrates lack both neurological similarity and language. Although it may be safest in making moral judgments to assume that some invertebrates are sentient, cogent reasons for thinking so must await an objective causal explanation for …

Spineless And Sentient: A Challenge For Moral Comparison, Patrick Forber, Robert C. Jones

Animal Sentience

We agree with Mikhalevich & Powell but take issue with their criteria for attributing sentience. This problem is connected with difficult issues concerning moral comparisons and evaluating moral decisions when interspecific moral interests conflict.

Avoiding Anthropocentrism In Evolutionarily Inclusive Ethics, Simon Fitzpatrick

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell are to be commended for challenging the “invertebrate dogma” that invertebrates are unworthy of ethical concern. However, developing an evolutionarily inclusive ethics requires facing some of the more radical implications of rejecting hierarchical scala naturae and human-centered conceptions of the biological world. In particular, we need to question the anthropocentric assumptions that still linger in discussions like these.

Zones Of Precaution, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

My commentary focusses on Mikhalevich & Powell’s criticisms of the Animal Sentience Precautionary Principle. I emphasize the pragmatic nature of my rationale for proposing that, rather than extending the scope of animal welfare protection on a species-by-species basis, we should be willing to protect entire Linnaean orders on the basis of evidence from a single species.

Brain Complexity, Sentience And Welfare, Donald M. Broom

Animal Sentience

Neither sentience nor moral standing is confined to animals with large or human-like brains. Invertebrates deserve moral consideration. Definition of terms clarifies the relationship between sentience and welfare. All animals have welfare but humans give more protection to sentient animals. Humans should be less human-centred.

Invertebrate Cognition, Sentience And Biology, Georges Chapouthier

Animal Sentience

All animal species have adapted for survival and no species is superior overall. For cognitive capacities and sentience, invertebrates such as the octopus, although quite unlike vertebrates, can achieve similar performance levels. So can other invertebrates with small brains; hence they too, as sentient beings, deserve moral consideration from humans. How are we to identify these species? Only though a detailed analysis of their behavior. The decision, which is a moral judgment, depends on biological knowledge that still needs to be acquired.

Convergent Evolution Of Sentience?, Culum Brown Prof.

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell make a compelling case that some invertebrates may be sentient and that our moral obligations in the context of welfare should hence extend to them. Although the case is similar to that made for fishes, there is one obvious difference in that examples of invertebrate sentience probably arose independently from vertebrate sentience. We have unequivocal proof that complex cognition arose multiple times over evolutionary history. Given that cognition is our best tool for indirectly quantifying sentience, it seems highly likely that this multiple polygenesis may also have occurred for sentience. In acknowledging this, we must accept that …