harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Stevan Harnad) (01/16/89)
Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article to appear in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international,
interdisciplinary journal that provides Open Peer Commentary on important
and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive
sciences. Commentators must be current BBS Associates or nominated by a
current BBS Associate. To be considered as a commentator on this article,
to suggest other appropriate commentators, or for information about how
to become a BBS Associate, please send email to:
harnad@confidence.princeton.edu or write to:
BBS, 20 Nassau Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08542 [tel: 609-921-7771]
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FROM AN ANIMAL'S POINT OF VIEW:
MOTIVATION, FITNESS AND ANIMAL WELFARE
Marion Stamp Dawkins
Department of Zoology
University of Oxford
ABSTRACT: To study animal welfare scientifically we need an objective
basis for deciding when an animal is suffering. Suffering includes a
wide range of unpleasant motivational states such as fear, boredom,
pain, hunger, etc. Suffering has evolved as a mechanism for avoiding
sources of danger and threats to fitness. In captive animals suffering
often occurs in situations in which they are prevented from doing
something they are highly motivated to do. The "price" an animal is
prepared to pay to obtain or escape a given environmental situation is
an index of how the animal "feels" about that situation. Witholding
conditions or commodities for which an animal shows "inelastic demand"
(i.e., for which it continues to work despite increasing costs) is very
likely to cause suffering. In designing environments for animals in
zoos, farms and laboratories priority should be given to features for
which the animal shows inelastic demand. The care of animals can
thereby be based on an animal-centred assessment of their needs.
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