Evolutionary and Ontogenetic Determinants of Animal Suffering and Well-Being

Abstract

Most people have definite ideas about the events or circumstances that cause suffering and stress in animals. Many of these ideas are based on personal experiences and, in some cases, on observations of wild and domestic animals. It is tempting to be anthropomorphic in interpreting the experiences of nonhuman animals despite the knowledge that species differ in genetic backgrounds, in perception of their respective environments, and in the experiences that contribute to the development of characteristic phenotypes. This chapter emphasizes that the suffering or stress experienced by an animal in response to any given set of environmental circumstances may be determined directly or indirectly by some combination of factors relating to its evolutionary and ontogenetic or developmental past. That is, the characteristics that an animal inherits from its ancestors and the experiences it acquires during its lifetime may have a profound effect on its ability to adapt to any existing set of environmental circumstances. For example, nobody would deny that terrestrial mammals have inherited fewer adaptations for swimming and surviving in an aquatic environment than mammals living in or near the water, e.g., whales, dolphins, and seals. If an adult human and an adult seal were placed in deep water for the first time, the human would undoubtedly exhibit the fewest adaptations and thus experience the most stress or suffering. Likewise a human that has never been in the water before would exhibit fewer adaptations and experience more stress than one who had previously learned to swim. The message here is that what is stressful for one species or individual is not necessarily stressful to another species or individual. This point may seem rather obvious or trite, but in the literature on animal stress and suffering (particularly the popularized literature) this fact is seldom discussed. For this reason, I emphasize some of the theoretical and practical issues regarding evolutionary and ontogenetic determinants of animal wellbeing and suffering that relate to the subject of animal welfare.