Pain in animals

A Galapagos shark hooked by a fishing boat

Pain negatively affects the health and welfare of animals.[1] "Pain" is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage."[2] Only the animal experiencing the pain can know the pain's quality and intensity, and the degree of suffering. It is harder, if even possible, for an observer to know whether an emotional experience has occurred, especially if the sufferer cannot communicate.[3] Therefore, this concept is often excluded in definitions of pain in animals, such as that provided by Zimmerman: "an aversive sensory experience caused by actual or potential injury that elicits protective motor and vegetative reactions, results in learned avoidance and may modify species-specific behaviour, including social behaviour."[4] Nonhuman animals cannot report their feelings to language-using humans in the same manner as human communication, but observation of their behaviour provides a reasonable indication as to the extent of their pain. Just as with doctors and medics who sometimes share no common language with their patients, the indicators of pain can still be understood.

According to the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals, pain is experienced by many animal species, including mammals and possibly all vertebrates.[5] Overview of anatomy of the nervous system across animal kingdom indicates that, not only vertebrates, but also most invertebrates have the capacity to feel pain.[6]

  1. ^ Mathews, Karol; Kronen, Peter W; Lascelles, Duncan; Nolan, Andrea; Robertson, Sheilah; Steagall, Paulo VM; Wright, Bonnie; Yamashita, Kazuto (20 May 2014). "Guidelines for Recognition, Assessment and Treatment of Pain". Journal of Small Animal Practice. 55 (6): E10–E68. doi:10.1111/jsap.12200. ISSN 0022-4510. PMID 24841489.
  2. ^ "IASP Pain Terminology". iasp-pain.org. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  3. ^ Wright, Andrew. "A Criticism of the IASP's Definition of Pain". Journal of Consciousness Studies. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  4. ^ Zimmerman, M (1986). "Physiological mechanisms of pain and its treatment". Klinische Anaesthesiol Intensivether. 32: 1–19.
  5. ^ National Research Council (US) Committee on Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals (2009). "Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals". National Center for Biotechnology Information. Archived from the original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  6. ^ Ermak, Gennady (2022). Plant-Based, Meat-Based and Between: Ways of Eating for Your Health and Our World. KDP. pp. 55–65. ISBN 979-8785908680.