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Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say

Crickets that received the hot probe “overwhelmingly” directed their attention to the affected antenna – they groomed it more frequently, and tended to it over a longer period of time, he says. “They weren’t just agitated and flustered. They were directing their attention to the actual antennae that was hit with this hot probe.”

Link to the paper

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[–] 48 points 5 months ago* (8 children)

Over the many decades I've been alive, there have been regular articles saying "scientists discover that such-and-such an animal may feel pain." And then its forgotten and people continue to treat animals terribly, until a couple of years later a similar article comes out. I can't see where the thought would even come from in the first place that these animals wouldn't feel pain, except for religious dogma and a desire to continue abusing animals while telling yourself it's OK. There's no reason to even suspect most animals aren't feeling pain.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    It and things like it go back forever. I had grad school teachers that say animals don't think. Obviously they do and its not just monkeys and birds and dolphins. Now the thought processes get more basic as you go down but its all there. dreams and such.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Meh, pain is just an indicator. Of course animals feel pain.

    For some reason people automatically associate that with how we as humans experience pain and learn from it.

    It's not because my car is showing a "check engine" light, that's it's suddenly screaming in agony. It's just signaling to the "brain" something is wrong. How the approach then continues is clearly different between many species and this is what researchers are trying to learn.

    Saying animals feel pain is obvious, speaking of "abuse" less so when you stop comparing the "experience" of pain to how we feel it.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Wow, impressive gymnastics you're doing here to try to make it ok to abuse animals.

    Sure, let's just assume that it's fine and continue, I mean it's not like it just keeps on being proven wrong.

    What is your point exactly? What good does it bring, to try to find ways to justify something that is likely harmful? What good does it bring you, to assume that animals that feel pain probably don't suffer still, other than just to delude yourself into thinking that it's ok for you to inflict pain to them?

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I'm not a scientist, I'm sure there's a clear ethical code doing these experiments.

    Instead choosing to stay blind is a dumb choice. How can we improve animal welfare by being blind.

    Research like this can improve the circumstances and decisions we need to make regarding pain. Blindly assuming can often do more harm than good.

    Instead of pointing fingers, try to reflect and think about it. I can easily point out several cases where your assumptions do harm.

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