A Michael Broad Blog
Introduction The question of sentience in animals has long been a subject of philosophical, scientific, and ethical debate. Sentience, broadly defined, refers to the capacity to experience sensations, emotions, and subjective awareness. It is a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes living, feeling beings from inanimate objects or purely mechanical processes. In recent decades, advances in …
For a while I have been making the point that we tend to regard fish as inanimate objects to be scooped out of the oceans in vast numbers, fried and eaten. An unending source of nutrition for the dominant species on the planet. But each of these fish has – I would argue – …
My title to this article stems from a story in The Telegraph newspaper of yesterday which reports on a male veterinarian who ended his life because, in part, he was so distressed about a minority of relatively wealthy owners requesting that he euthanize their companion animals rather than treat them because the treatment would …
A recent study – and one which I would argue is pretty important – discovered that crows can hold grudges for 17 years. They hold grudges against people who have maligned them; who have been harmful to them and who they don’t trust because of experiences and interactions that they have had with these …
About nine years ago almost to the day I wrote about the necessity of animal welfare being part of the school curriculum. I felt then as I do now that it is important that children are taught how to respect animals in general and perhaps in particular domestic cats and dogs because they are …
The latest wheeze by the Australian authorities to keep down the feral cat population on their continent is to blowup rabbits and their homes. Rabbits are a prey animal for feral cats and the argument is that if you destroy rabbits you destroy feral cats because they might starve to death which I think …
Humans are often guilty of anthropocentrism (the world revolves around them and animals are incidental to their lives). I feel that the vast majority of people really don’t give enough respect to the brain power of animals and their sentience which in the wrong person facilitates abuse. It is what facilitates sport hunting. And …
OPINION AND COMMENT PLEASE NOTE: Like other animal advocates I am disgusted and shocked at New Zealand’s attitude towards feral cats and the desensitisation of New Zealand children towards causing pain in animals, to ignoring the sentience of animals, in this notorious and controversial annual competition in North Canterbury in which children and their …
