LONDON (Reuters) -- New studies showing that slugs, snails and
cockroaches suffer pain may prompt humans to tiptoe around the animal
kingdom.
The research, the subject of a meeting organized by the
British charity Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, boosts lobby
groups that argue that animals have emotions.
"People who think insects do not feel any pain may be
wrong," Dr. Stephen Wickens of the charity told the Daily Telegraph
newspaper. "Perhaps people should think twice before reaching for the
fly spray."
Dr. Chris Sherwin of the University of Bristol said
insects reacted much like cats and dogs in their aversion to electric
shocks.
"If it is a chimp, we say it feels pain, if a fly, we do
not. Why?" Sherwin said.
Studies carried out at Cambridge University discovered
that cows can react emotionally. Another study revealed that sheep, in
defiance of their dumb image, can distinguish one person from another.
Source: "Adam Weissman, Wetlands Preserve" <[email protected]>
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