Mary Allen
Such observations indicate that insects in particular do not feel pain like humans do. They do have sensory organs with which they can perceive pain stimuli. But probably most invertebrates are not aware of pain because of their simple brain structure – not even earthworms and insects.
The Berlin neurobiologist Menzel represents a different theory. In his view, pain is not dependent on consciousness or phylogenetic development. For Menzel, the perception of pain has something to do with identification. “When animals experience themselves as individuals, they can also develop an emotional component – something like pain,” says Menzel.
An octopus, for example, is able to do this. The workers of a bee colony, on the other hand, could not recognize each other as individuals. Menzel, therefore, considers it rather unlikely that bees feel pain.
Even if doubts remain: In Germany, it is strictly forbidden to inflict pain on animals. The Animal Welfare Act follows the analogy conclusion. However, only vertebrates such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals are protected under criminal law. Invertebrates such as insects, spiders, and snails are left out.
In the meantime, experiments with these creatures only have to be reported, but no longer approved. Certain squid and highly developed crustaceans such as the lobster occupy a special position. Scientific studies have shown that these animals have a very highly developed nervous system that makes it possible to feel pain.
Can an insect feel pain?
Persistent Suffering: Insects can not only experience acute pain, they also suffer from chronic pain – just like us, humans. Even if a nerve injury has long since healed, they are overly sensitive to pain stimuli, as an experiment has shown.
Can a spider feel pain?
Wolfgang Nentwig, ecologist and spider researcher, University of Bern “All animals that have a central nervous system are able to feel pain, including vertebrates and arthropods such as spiders and molluscs.
Do animals feel pain when eaten?
Birds have pain receptors and therefore feel pain just like mammals, according to Bekoff. In a 2000 study, lame chickens chose diets containing painkillers when they were given a choice of food.
Which animals are not in pain?
Robust, resilient, and extremely tough: the African naked mole rat has characteristics that distinguish it from all other mammals. A German-American research team has discovered that he is almost completely insensitive to pain.
A bee cannot moan
Signs of pain are often only revealed by physiological tests, such as increased heart rate or altered hormone levels.
Even if pain becomes a measurable feeling in this way: Ultimately, humans only transfer their own experiences to the animal world by analogy.
This may make sense when dealing with animals that are relatively closely related to humans. However, the more distant it is on a phylogenetic level, the more arbitrary the pain criteria appear: A bee cannot moan or grind its teeth.
Their nervous system can hardly be compared with the central nervous system of vertebrates. Nevertheless, the neurobiologist Menzel, who himself researches learning processes in bees, considers the analogy to be useful for assessing pain: “I think that the similarity to humans is not a bad criterion. For one simple reason: we don’t have any other available.”
In the same breath, however, Menzel warns against the reverse conclusion: “One must be careful not to assume that the worm feels pain just because it is writhing.”
From a scientific point of view, too much empathy is not appropriate, agrees Alexander Borst from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Martinsried. Humans are far too different from animals to judge animal pain: “An insect with a broken leg walks just as it did before, without visibly sparing the leg.” Even locusts just keep eating while they are being eaten by a praying mantis.