Animals don't suffer? The point is moot
From Silent suffering (AVMA Animal Welfare Forum addresses pain management in animals):
Ref: Consider The Lobster (pdf) by David Foster Wallace - Go to Pawprints: TNRM - Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore. - Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived - Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management - Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook - Meet our homeseekers - Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education - Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need"The scientific evidence is overwhelming that animals do feel pain," said Dr. Sheilah A. Robertson, opening speaker at the 2001 AVMA Animal Welfare Forum, held Oct. 14 in Chicago. "What we need to do is now move on and discuss the more important topics like how can we help them." ... between 17 and 20 million animals are used in research annually in the United States, most of those being rodents. Dr. Robertson estimates there are at least 20 million dogs, 60 million cats, another 60 million feral cats, and an undetermined number of farm animals are exposed to painful procedures in the United States... (calsifer: think puppy mills and factory farming for a start) ... although animals may not experience pain exactly the same way humans do, that does not detract from an ethical responsibility to alleviate animal suffering, Dr. Robertson said, ... To experience pain, an animal must have a functional brain and be conscious. If an animal is unconscious, as when a research animal is undergoing procedure and never regains consciousness, for example, it cannot perceive pain, Dr. Robertson explained. "Pain [occurs] if you're aware, have a functional brain, and receive those incoming messages," she said. "So pain is always a personal experience. It's unique to each individual person and each individual animal."
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