What is animal sentience

and why does it matter?

The basis of all Compassion in World Farming's work on farm animal welfare is the recognition that animals are sentient beings.

Many animals have complex mental and emotional lives

Sentient animals are capable of being aware of sensations and emotions, of feeling pain and suffering, and of experiencing a state of well being. Sentient animals are aware of their surroundings and of what happens to them.

Many animals turn out to have more complex mental and emotional lives than people have understood in the past. Scientific research is constantly revealing new evidence of animals’ intelligence and emotions.

Some animals can enjoy learning a new skill. Some appear to show similar emotions to human empathy. On the negative side, animals can experience the unpleasant emotions of pain, fear, frustration and probably boredom as well. They can be reduced to a state resembling human depression by chronic stress or confinement in a cage.

What is exciting about the present time is that scientists are interested in studying animals’ emotions and mental processes and that huge progress in understanding animals is being made.

Compassion in World Farming is opposed to any animal experimentation that causes pain or suffering to animals; however, where such experiments increase our understanding of animal sentience, we will report them in the long term interest of all animals.