Citation

Author Website

www.adamolab.ca

Thread

Jonathan Birch, Animal sentience and the precautionary principle

Abstract

The target article by Birch illustrates the practical difficulties with the “Animal Sentience Precautionary Principle” (ASPP) while presenting potential solutions. However, the ASPP will be difficult to use without guidelines detailing how evidence of sentience should be assessed. Moreover, extrapolating conclusions found for a single species to all species within an Order is problematic. Finally, I recommend that Birch demonstrate his ASPP framework using a controversial test case to help show how it could be used in real-world situations.

Author Biography

Shelley A. Adamo is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University. She studies interactions among nervous systems, immune systems and behaviour in insects. She is especially interested in seemingly maladaptive connections, such as stress-induced immunosuppression. She is still trying to determine whether insects are complicated robots, small beings with deep inner lives, or something in between.

www.adamolab.ca

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1222