Scientists propose that we should regard animals in general as conscious beings

Scientists have suggested that animals in general should be considered as conscious beings (reported in The Times today). The scientists have issued a declaration to that effect. What do they mean? The Times doesn't explain what "conscious being" means. I will presume that one aspect of this description means that the animal has the ability to be self-conscious which means that they have the ability to be aware of the fact that they are a being. The classic test is to look into a mirror and recognise the fact that you are looking at yourself.

Consciousness, according to Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics, "gives us the ability to locate ourselves in time, to plan for the future, to remember specific events from our past, to make flexible decisions and learn from very sophisticated ways about the world around us."

On the mirror test, Tom Whipple, the science editor of The Times states that, "If you show some fish species a mirror, they will first attack it but then, when that fails, do odd things like swim upside down to see if their reflection follows."

RELATED: Angry octopus attacks geologist while walking along the shore in Western Australia.

This indicates that these fish species referred to are initially confused by the mirror image and then become aware of it indicating that they are self-conscious. They are conscious beings. It's remarkable if it's true that fish are self-conscious because we kill them in the billions in the cruellest of ways in the oceans annually. People treat fish as objects; inanimate objects actually. It's been found that this can feel pain. Another indication that they are conscious beings.

At the moment there are only a handful of animals that the scientists agree are self-conscious, which would fly in the face of this declaration, if my interpretation of what "conscious beings" means.

RELATED: Animal self-consciousness a.k.a. self-awareness should not be assessed by comparison to humans.

In another test, scientists made crayfish anxious. Then they alleviated that anxiety with a tranquilizing drug. They found it worked. So their brain responded to a mind altering drug. This proves that they have a mind.

A lot of scientists and philosophers believe that it is time to create the default position that animals are conscious.

Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics said: "You've got all these behaviours where in the human case we would very naturally think that this was the sort of behaviour that consciousness enables". He's saying the behaviours of many animals indicate consciousness because they are similar to the behaviours of people.

Jonathan Birch is one of the organisers of "The New York Declaration". Animal sentience is bound up with animal consciousness an animal self-awareness. There's been a lot of research and subsequent information on the Internet about animal sentience. It's a great development because it drives people to an awareness that animals feel pain which in turn promotes animal welfare, the objective of hundreds of millions of animal advocates.

It said that 10 years ago the concept of animal sentience was hardly discussed and not even been founded. Things have changed.

Intelligence and sentience should not be confused as per Jeremy Bentham's argument. All we need to know is that an animal can feel pain and can suffer. If an animal can suffer it is a sentient being.

"The question is not, 'Can they reason? Nor can they talk? [But] can they suffer?

At the moment we believe that it is not possible to know for certain that an animal is conscious or self-aware. Although for mammals and birds it's almost certain that they have a "conscious experience". 

But crows, known for their intelligence, "can adaptively problem-solving, recognise people and even report their own experiences". It is possible, though, to argue that the ability to problem solve does not mean for a certainty that crows are conscious beings.

The above-mentioned declaration has been signed by 38 global experts.

"In the case of octopuses and cuttlefish and things like that, it is primarily behavioural evidence. But it's behavioural evidence pointing to remarkable abilities that no one really thought were there, to do with simulating the future, remembering specific events from the past", said Jonathan Birch.

The declaration, for me, is an indication that humans are moving in the right direction in their relationship with animals; a direction towards better animal welfare and a recognition that animals are sentient and possibly many more are self-aware than previously we thought was the case.

Even bees can be regarded as sentient and conscious beings. A recent test showed they enjoyed playing with a little ball.

RELATED: In a kind of insect culture, bees teach each other to solve problems.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

How do cats see us?

How do cats see us? This is a question that crosses my mind quite often. When I talk to my cat, what does she understand? How does she relate to the sounds I make, the words I say? We see a cat, what does she see? How do cats see us? This is a question that crosses the minds of many people, I am sure.

In this article I am not referring to how cats see us visually i.e. what is their eyesight like? I am asking how they perceive us: as cats or another creature or they have no perception of us as a certain type of animal.

Halle Bailey with her new grey tabby cat wearing an enormous collar. Photo: her Instagram page.

There are a number of clues which lead us towards an answer although we will never be absolutely sure because only the individual (cat or human) knows what is happening inside their head (sometimes).

And it needs to said that the evidence points to the fact that cats are not self-aware. They don't see themselves as cats. They don't recognise themselves in a mirror. This supports the view that cats don't see us as 'humans' or another animal. They just see us as a provider of food, warmth and security. If they can't see themselves as individuals, they won't be able to see people as a different species of animal. In fact, cats don't recognise the concept of animal species.

RELATED: Can cats be self-conscious?

A mother cat will repeatedly lick her young (and a father cat, let's not leave out the males) in the early days of a kitten's life. When the kitten is grown up and looked after by a human "owner" (I prefer the word 'caregiver') the person strokes the cat. Stroking feels like licking to a cat. 

A cat will sometimes ask for this attention. My cat rolls over on the ground and waits to be stroked and a stray cat, Timmy, turns over on his back for the same treatment. At this time, it would seem that our cats are seeing us as a mother cat. 

Do they see us as cats or humans? Obviously, we look different to their real mother and father. Cats, in my view, do not ask the question, why does this person/animal look different to my mother? They don't even raise the query as to why we as people look so very different to a cat. 

They simply accept us a mother/father cat, looking beyond the appearance or ignoring the appearance. It is humans who are all wrapped up in appearance, look at the consumer society, dog breeding and to a lesser extent cat breeding.

Cats don't think, "I am beautiful", if they are a fantastic purebred pedigree cat. Their looks are irrelevant to them. And this can be carried forward in answering the question, "How do cats see us?" They see us a parenting animal that acts like a cat.

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I have another page on this topic in which I address it in a different way. Please click on this link to read it.

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How do cats see us when we talk to them, sometimes in a strange baby language (cats are better than babies)? Well, they don't understand the language but they do understand the body language, our actions and the baby sounds that we make. 

Just as we understand the sounds and actions they make. It is not always completely clear what a cat wants but we can normally find out pretty quickly. Once again, they don't analyze the sound that we make to communicate with them; they instinctively understand or not. 

In other words, their perception is not colored by questions like, "I can't understand this person", or "he's not making any sense", or "he speaks in a foreign language." They just understand or not and we will communicate in various ways until our cat understands and that will become apparent to us.

The relationship is very like that between two people who speak completely different languages, who are tolerant of each other and the limitations of their communication and who use crude instinctive sign language to convey what they mean - this works just fine.

One other thing, cats don't need or want to face us when we talk to them. This seems to be for two reasons (1) cats don't like eye contact and (2) their ears can swivel so they just turn their ears rather than their head. This indicates that they are not reading human facial expressions to interpret communication. They are more interested in the quality of the sound and what it means in context.

So, bottom line, in answering the question, "How do cats see us?", they don't ask the question, "How do humans see us". They just live instinctively in an unselfconscious way and relate to us as cats who are their parents - surrogate mothers. That is why the domestic cat is a perpetual kitten. Once they become truly feral, they become wild cats.

How do cats see us? to Household pets (moggies)

How do cats see us? - Source: this are my views alone, except for the behavior in respect of licking/stroking, which comes from Desmond Morris.

This page was first published in 2008.