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Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Over the many decades I've been alive, there have been regular articles saying "scientists discover that such-and-such an animal may feel pain." And then its forgotten and people continue to treat animals terribly, until a couple of years later a similar article comes out. I can't see where the thought would even come from in the first place that these animals wouldn't feel pain, except for religious dogma and a desire to continue abusing animals while telling yourself it's OK. There's no reason to even suspect most animals aren't feeling pain.
Back in the day they didn’t even think human babies felt pain. Also heaven forbid if you are black and/or a woman.
Why would you assume another organism can feel pain without any proof? Rationalism requires skepticism.
Why should anyone assume you can feel pain without evidence? You're not gonna like how the evidence is collected
It and things like it go back forever. I had grad school teachers that say animals don't think. Obviously they do and its not just monkeys and birds and dolphins. Now the thought processes get more basic as you go down but its all there. dreams and such.
Meh, pain is just an indicator. Of course animals feel pain.
For some reason people automatically associate that with how we as humans experience pain and learn from it.
It's not because my car is showing a "check engine" light, that's it's suddenly screaming in agony. It's just signaling to the "brain" something is wrong. How the approach then continues is clearly different between many species and this is what researchers are trying to learn.
Saying animals feel pain is obvious, speaking of "abuse" less so when you stop comparing the "experience" of pain to how we feel it.
Wow, impressive gymnastics you're doing here to try to make it ok to abuse animals.
Sure, let's just assume that it's fine and continue, I mean it's not like it just keeps on being proven wrong.
What is your point exactly? What good does it bring, to try to find ways to justify something that is likely harmful? What good does it bring you, to assume that animals that feel pain probably don't suffer still, other than just to delude yourself into thinking that it's ok for you to inflict pain to them?
I'm not a scientist, I'm sure there's a clear ethical code doing these experiments.
Instead choosing to stay blind is a dumb choice. How can we improve animal welfare by being blind.
Research like this can improve the circumstances and decisions we need to make regarding pain. Blindly assuming can often do more harm than good.
Instead of pointing fingers, try to reflect and think about it. I can easily point out several cases where your assumptions do harm.
Please elaborate: You can point out cases where the assumption that something can feel pain causes harm?
How can it do harm, to assume that other living beings might be suffering? What kind of situation could ever be worse, by just being a bit less self-centered?
Wait, sorry, you're arguing in favour of the research, not in favour of harming other beings because you think they don't feel pain. Bit confusing.
Source: was a cat 🐱