Reddit reviews Animals, Ethics and Trade: The Challenge of Animal Sentience
We found 1 Reddit comments about Animals, Ethics and Trade: The Challenge of Animal Sentience. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Both are very specific examples which are hard to objectively prove, and which even if I did find sources for I am sure somebody could find a contradictory source for. However, given a fruit fly has only about 250k neurons it would be nothing short of miraculous if they are able to perform all of their necessary functions and feel emotion. Anecdotally I have seen chickens show no compassion for other chickens at all - they peck at the weakened until they die and keep pecking. Anybody who has kept chickens will have observed the same.
Regardless of these specific examples my core point stands. Animal welfare policies and discussion are heavily based around sentience, which is a product of intelligence. People have written entire books on this if you feel like reading about it.
It's even a hot topic in politics right now - https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/animal-sentience-brexit-vote-caroline-lucas-michael-gove-truth-fact-argument-a8072071.html
What I'm getting at here is that this is a colossal ongoing debate and we aren't going to find the answer here. I personally think that it's absurd to think that an amoeba can suffer in the same capacity as a chimpanzee - and if you agree with that then you agree that at some level of intelligence, suffering becomes a thing. I would go a step further and say the capacity to suffer scales with intelligence.