Guest guest Posted May 12, 2000 Report Share Posted May 12, 2000 " Ouch, " Said the Cockroach Symposium assesses critter consciousness Do the lower animals feel pain? Scientists meeting at a London symposium today say they sure can. Cockroaches, slugs, snails and flies among them, the Electronic Telegraph reports. According to Dr. Chris Sherwin, of the University of Bristol, the way they tested pain in dogs, cats or chimpanzees often came up with similar results among insects. " If a chimp pulls its hand away after an electric shock, we say she presumably must have felt an analogous subjective experience to what we call pain, " he says. " But cockroaches, slugs and snails ... also reacted in the same way, while tests on flies showed they could associate a smell with receiving an electric shock. " The symposium was organized by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare [ http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ufaw3/charity ] to debate whether and how animals feel. ___________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Click here for FREE Internet Access and Email http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 15, 2000 Report Share Posted May 15, 2000 Cockroaches, slugs and snails feel pain, study says May 11, 2000 Web posted at: 2:41 PM EDT (1841 GMT) http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/science.creatures.reut/index.html LONDON (Reuters) -- New studies showing that slugs, snails and cockroaches suffer pain may prompt humans to tiptoe around the animal kingdom. The research, the subject of a meeting Thursday organized by the British charity Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, boosts lobby groups that argue that animals have emotions. " People who think insects do not feel any pain may be wrong, " Dr. Stephen Wickens of the charity told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. " Perhaps people should think twice before reaching for the fly spray. " Dr. Chris Sherwin of the University of Bristol said insects reacted much like cats and dogs in their aversion to electric shocks. " If it is a chimp, we say it feels pain, if a fly, we do not. Why? " Sherwin said. Studies carried out at Cambridge University discovered that cows can react emotionally. Another study revealed that sheep, in defiance of their dumb image, can distinguish one person from another. http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/science.creatures.reut/index.html > The symposium was organized by the Universities Federation for Animal > Welfare http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ufaw3/ to debate whether and > how animals feel. -- _____________ Free email services provided by http://www.goodkarmamail.com powered by OutBlaze Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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