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Animal Sentience: Where Are We and Where Are We Heading?
Open accessAbstract
The science of animal sentience underpins the entire animal welfare movement. Demonstrating objectively what animals are capable of is key to achieving a positive change in attitudes and actions towards animals, and a real, sustainable difference for animal welfare. This paper briefly summarises understanding and acceptance of animal sentience through the ages. Although not an exhaustive history, it highlights some of the leading figures whose opinions and work have most affected perspectives of animal sentience. There follows a review of the current state of animal sentience, what is known, and what the main limitations have been for the development of the study of sentience. The paper concludes with some thoughts for the future of the science, and where it should be going in order to most benefit animal welfare.
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“These attributes are also indicators of sentience, which is only now being empirically proven in animals.”
From The Dog-Eared Dictionary: Human-Animal Alliance in Chinese Civilization (2015) · cites this paper as Proctor 2012
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Metadata
- Authors
- Proctor, H.
- Affiliations
- World Animal Protection (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Proctor, Helen
- ORCID
- Proctor, Helen
- Venue
- Animals
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2012-11-14
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 628-639
- ISSN
- 2076-2615 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4494284
- OpenAlex
- W2064865761
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Animals (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Social Sciences › Law › Animal Law and Welfare
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
- Keywords
- animal sentience, animal welfare, animal cognition, attitudes toward animals
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