Ethics of Research involving animals
Subjective and objective elements of assessing welfare: a correlative approach
4.18 How, in practice, is it possible to assess whether or not animals experience pain, suffering or distress? And how far can our assessments be free from anthropomorphisms? Below we consider four approaches:15
(i) evaluation of clinical signs;
(ii) study of animals’ choices;
(iii) familiarity with ethological and ecological data; and
(iv) consideration of physiological and neurological features.
In discussing each approach, we also aim to assess how far the criteria used are likely to be biased by unjustified ascription of human dispositions to animals, thus analysing further the feasibility of the concept of critical anthropomorphism (see paragraph 4.7).
Footnotes14 Primary pain is conducted exceptionally quickly, resulting in rapid withdrawal of affected body parts where possible. By
contrast, pain brought about by tissue damage of internal organs is usually conducted more slowly, resulting in chronic,
intense suffering. However, there are also exceptions to this pattern, since colic causes a very acute pain, and bone
metastases can cause twinges of substantial pain.
15 All four approaches come into play when defining good practice for assessing welfare, although specific categories may receive
more attention than others. Since this chapter addresses the question of how to assess pain, suffering and distress in animals
from first principles, and since there is considerable overlap between approaches (i)–(iv), we discuss them under one heading.