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This is: Invertebrate Welfare Cause Profile , published by Jason Schukraft on the Effective Altruism Forum.
Executive Summary
More than 99.9% of animals are invertebrates. There is modest evidence that some large groups of invertebrates, especially cephalopods and arthropods, are sentient. The effective animal activism community currently allocates less than 1% of total spending to invertebrate welfare. That share should rise so that we can better understand invertebrate sentience and investigate the tractability of improving invertebrate welfare.
Introduction and Context
This post is the tenth in Rethink Priorities’ series on invertebrate welfare. In the first post we examine some philosophical difficulties inherent in the detection of morally significant pain and pleasure in nonhumans. In the second post we discuss our survey and compilation of the extant scientific literature relevant to invertebrate sentience, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of our approach to the subject. In the third post we explain some anatomical, evolutionary, and behavioral features potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. In the fourth post we explain some drug responses, motivational tradeoffs, and feats of cognitive sophistication potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. In the fifth post we explain some learning indicators, navigational skills, and mood state behaviors potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. The sixth post announces our Invertebrate Sentience Table. In the seventh and eighth posts, we present our summary of findings by feature and by taxa. The ninth post asks what we can learn about sentience from examining process that operate unconsciously in humans.
In this post we apply the standard importance-neglectedness-tractability framework to invertebrate welfare to determine, as best we can, whether this is a cause area that is worth prioritizing. We conclude that it is. In a separate post, slated to be published next month, we present and examine the best arguments against our analysis.
What Is Invertebrate Welfare?
Invertebrates[1] comprise an enormous and diverse array of animals, from nematodes and earthworms to jumping spiders and jellyfish, crabs and krill to cuttlefish and cockroaches. Because invertebrates are a large and heterogeneous class of animals, there are few things that can be said about invertebrates in general (other than that they are animals that lack a backbone). Moreover, it is uncertain which (if any) invertebrates have the capacity for valenced experience,[2] so it is unclear whether these animals have a welfare. Thus, the term ‘invertebrate welfare’ is inevitably misleading.[3] Using the term to denote a cause area is something of a terminological simplification.
If invertebrate welfare were a mature field, it would encompass perhaps dozens of distinct and unrelated interventions.[4] A campaign to promote the use of humane insecticides is quite different in kind from a campaign to promote strict laboratory standards for the treatment of octopuses.[5] What the interventions have in common is that they concern a group of animals whose welfare has historically been ignored.
When we consider the arguments for and against prioritizing invertebrate welfare as a cause area, what we are considering is whether we should prioritize learning more about this group of animals. At this early stage, supporting the cause of invertebrate welfare means supporting additional research on invertebrate sentience, advocacy strategies, and cost-effective interventions. Opposing the cause means de-prioritizing this research. It’s possible to support the cause now, and, as the results of the additional research come in, later oppose the cause.
Complicati...
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