The more we study sentience among nonhuman animals (animals) the more species are added to the sentience arena—the biodiversity of sentience is forever growing—and ethical questions about pain and suffering in many different animals, including insects, come to the fore.1,2 For example, the emotional lives of insects are richer than many of us have ever imagined—not just in the ever-popular bees, but also in flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and termites too. (Darwin himself thought this! In 1872, he wrote that insects “express anger, terror, jealousy and love.”) A recent and detailed review of the evidence by Matilda Gibbons and her colleagues titled “Can insects feel pain? A review of the neural and behavioural evidence" makes it plausible that various insects are indeed sentient and feel pain.

Because science clearly shows that numerous animals other than ourselves are sentient beings, a shift in attitudes is in progress. Given what we know about animal sentience, it's time for more action—to use what we know on behalf of other animals.

Given the attention being directed to insect sentience, I'm thrilled that Dr. Bob Fischer, an expert on this topic, could answer a few questions about the state of the art of research in this area.

Marc Bekoff: How did you get interested in insect sentience?

Bob Fischer: I got interested in insects because I wanted to know how to eat. It’s easy to know what not to eat! Factory farms cause a lot of unnecessary harm; so, we have good reason to avoid the meat, eggs, and dairy products that come out of them. But that leaves lots of open questions about what you should eat instead. Just plants? What about bivalves? What about bugs? It all seemed very complicated at the time!

MB: How can we know whether insects are sentient?

BF: Great question! The short answer is that we can look at........

© Psychology Today