Some of the smartest minds in science came together to publicly acknowledge what any pet owner has known all along – animals are consciously aware of their surroundings.
Now, why this might seem to be a bit of a “duh” moment for any animal lover, it’s big news that the scientific community has made it official. A group of cognitive scientists, neurophysiologists, computational neuroscientists, along with Stephen Hawking and a bunch of other super smart folks at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals came together to sign the declaration.
The reasoning for signing the declaration is simple, there was just too large a body of scientific evidence for animals’ awareness that couldn’t be ignored. Not every animal fits the criteria however, scientists have limited it to all mammals, birds, and even the octopus. Meaning you can still get off guilt free about killing a spider.
The human race shouldn’t need a scientific declaration to treat animals better, but sometimes that’s what it takes.
Read the full details of the conference here.
via io9