Lecturer University of Southampton, England, United Kingdom
Sentience – the capacity to experience valenced mental states such as pleasure and pain – is a key feature of animal welfare consideration, and is commonly used to ground moral status and justify legislative protections of different animals. Establishing the presence or absence of sentience is thus one of the most crucial aspects of determining the scope of their protection. Using the model of our recent work on the sentience on cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans and its impact on UK policy, I will outline the current evidence for insect sentience, as well as laying out the most important future research directions and the potential implications for policy relating to insect protection and welfare.
