Animal sentience conference

Be afraid, be very afraid. A real can of worms is going to be opened in a couple of weeks. There?s to be a conference in London in mid-March (17th-18th) on the subject of animal sentience. It?s being organized by the Compassion in World Farming Trust, who describe it thus;
?Astonishing new discoveries about animal sentience and the profound effect these might have on every aspect of society are to be explored in a ground-breaking international conference being organised by CIWF Trust.?
We all know what profound effects are being alluded to; no meat eating, no countrysports, no goldfish in bowls and so on. Suppose mammals and fish were shown to be far cleverer and self-aware than most of us believe, by good, peer reviewed science. How would we anglers/meat eaters respond? I?m an out-and-out speciesist who does not believe that animals should be included in our moral universe. It?s not that I?m a hard, heartless b*****d, it?s the only intellectually consistent position to take, given my love of meat, fishing and fine leather shoes. But what of others?
It may be worth keeping an eye out on the CiWF website at

http://www.animalsentience.com/news/2004-08-17.htm

and an ear open for subsequent reports in the national news.

the National news will only publish any of the stories if it's weird and wacky or if it's very, very astonishing and the scientific review will have to be somebody bloody famous.

How many animals are attending and have they made their views known?... Didnt think so: so what proof or right have this bunch got to say the stuff they say, how can it be substantiated? Psychobable rules the tabloids though!

>no meat eating

No vegetable eating either Dave, think of the poor earthworms that get chopped up when the spud digger-upper machine goes round the field. And all the little fluffy baby bunnies that get combine harvested. No chaps, I'm afraid it's "minerals-only" for us from now on.

Today's menu.
To start - Salt of the day.
Main - Vitamins on a bed of sun-dried Rock Salt.
Dessert - Iron tablets smothered in salt that has been pureed in fresh spring water.
Yum!

Rik,

wierd and wacky, right?

Well how is this, one of the speakers at this symposium is Prof. Ian Duncan who is the chair of Applied Ethology at the University of Guelph and holds the oldest University Chair in Animal Welfare in North America.

Here is a quote from his bio for the symposium:

"In his research, he is developing methods of asking farm animals what they feel about the conditions in which they are kept and the procedures to which they are subjected"

The above was taken from the website noted above.

Does it get much more wierd or wacky?

Holy brown stuff Peter!! And this guy gets paid? Two questions.... who pays him? Have they got any vacancies? The university of "Guelph"?? Might have to go online and buy myself a degree from there. I could study how to talk to vegetables, ah but then again it appears the honourable Mr Duncan as cornered that niche in the market already lol!

Can you imagine some of the results of hisresearch?

"Good morning Pigs, stand by yer beds - any complaints?"

The website is a mine of fun things to read and to think about too Don.

Talk about money for old rope!