Dr. Michael Fox: Animal Rights

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PLOWBOY: Of course . . . in fact, no one can really tell what another person is feeling at a given time.

FOX: Exactly. We can only take each other's word for it. And since I'm a very squeamish person, for instance, it's possible that an activity that you'd enjoy might cause me great emotional pain. However, we can draw analogies — either human to human or human to animal — by observing changes in behavior and in physiology. Through such observations we can see — for instance — that both humans and animals will, if they're confined in a small chamber, soon resort to repetitive movements. And if the confinement goes on long enough, we can see that the "prisoner" — be it human or animal — will begin to lose body calcium.

More extreme stress — such as that caused by severe crowding — will lead, in many animals,, to such physical reactions as an increase in the size of the adrenal glands, changes in the rate of production of growth hormones, and so forth.

We can see, too, that other creatures — even birds — have in their brains a crude emotional center that's equivalent to the human limbic system . . . which means that those creatures are physically equipped to experience fear. And we can probably go on to assume that birds and mammals, at least, sometimes face greater fears than those that humankind usually experiences . . . because we are at least able to reason.

If a child is put under restraint for a medical problem, say, one can explain the need for the restriction of movement and thus eliminate at least a little of the youngster's fright. When a steer is put in a holding shoot, though, it'll often struggle to the point of collapse . . . when exhaustion overpowers its fear.

Furthermore, we now know that monkeys, dogs, rats, and even bony fish have benzodiazepin receptors — which enable an organism to feel anxiety — in their brains. (Humans use calmative drugs, such as Valium, to block these receptors and thus limit the ability to experience anxiety.) The presence of such receptors is, of course, convincing evidence that even animals as primitive as fish can feel fear and anxiety.

PLOWBOY: But what would cause reasonable people — in the face of both scientific evidence and the many clues that are revealed to anyone who spends any amount of time around animals — to believe that other creatures can't feel pain or experience emotional distress?

FOX: Well, I'd guess that we have this widespread denial of empathy because it simply hurts too much — it's too painful — for many of us to get in touch with our own helplessness through appreciating the helplessness and suffering of animals. It's a sort of defense mechanism, you see. When we begin to empathize too fully with other creatures, we're confronted with an awesome burden of responsibility and guilt . . . especially if our lifestyles have caused us to inflict unnecessary suffering or extreme deprivation upon animals.

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