Animals are sentient and conscious
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think ("reason") from the ability to feel ("sentience"). In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences (described by some thinkers as "qualia").
For Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, which entails certain rights. In science fiction, non-human characters described as "sentient" typically have similar abilities, qualities and rights as human beings.
The EU (European Union) has recognized animals as 'sentient beings' since 1997. The animal welfare protocol included in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam introduced a significant change, as, for the first time in European law, animals were referred to as sentient beings - able to feel pain and suffering. The Treaty of Lisbon , which entered into force on 1 December 2009, incorporated an article on animal welfare, which provides that:
“In formulating and implementing the Union's agriculture, fisheries, transport, internal market, research and technological development and space policies, the Union and the Member States shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage”.
In addition to being sentient, scientists have now declared:
nonhuman animals are conscious
In a study published in early July 2012, scientists declared that hey have reached a 'critical' consensus:
Humans are not the only conscious beings;
other animals, specifically mammals and birds, are indeed conscious, too.
It may have seemed obvious to everyone who knows an animal - be it a companion or any other animal - that they are aware of their own existence and are not simply biological machines. You may also take it for granted, when you stare into the eyes of your dog, or of a chimpanzee, that you’re seeing a self-aware being.
The official decision was reached in late night discussions on 7th of July 2012 during the prestigious annual Francis Crick Memorial Conference. This year’s conference was entitled “Consciousness in Human and Nonhuman Animals” and included presentations by neuroscientists and experts in the fields of marine mammals, birds and cephalopods (octopus etc.). The conference issued this announcement:
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in Non-Human Animals was publicly proclaimed in Cambridge, UK, on July 7, 2012, at the conclusion of the Conference, at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, by Philip Low, David Edelman and Christof Koch. … The Declaration was signed by the conference participants that very evening, in the presence of Stephen Hawking, in the Balfour Room at the Hotel du Vin in Cambridge, UK. The signing ceremony was memorialized by CBS 60 Minutes.
The full declaration includes statements like:
Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.
… The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.
and:
We declare the following: “The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non- human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”
You can read the full report by clicking here!
Reference: http://www.earthintransition.org/2012/07/scientists-declare-nonhuman-animals-are-conscious/