Animal Sentience Vs Plants

Ga Maleven

The primary argument for veganism is that of how the victims are sentient, feel pain, and can think. Not just human victims, but non-human animals as well. Sadly, animal agriculture and other industries that exploit, abuse, and kill animals for profit have long sold the myth that animals are “dumb” and “brutes” and “don’t care about their babies,” or that they “don’t feel pain as we do.”

When in reality the complete opposite is true. Animals can think, feel pain, communicate, have personalities, and so many other things that us, the human animal, also possess. Much of the time they are even more loving and intelligent than humans!

Sentience:

Sentience, as defined by Websters, is: feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought. It is the ability to capacity to be aware of feelings and sensations. It is NOT the same as intelligence, which is the ability to reason and problem solve.

Animals are sentient. They know when they are going to be killed, so cry and beg not to die, and fight to survive. They can feel when in danger, or safe, or the mood of those around them. They have the fight or flight instinct, and do everything they can to survive and thrive.

Animals are sentient from the smallest ant to the largest whale. Every species show they possess sentience. And hundreds of studies, as well as simply being around animals, proves this to be a fact.

Intelligence/Personality:

Intelligence is different from sentience. While sentience is your ability to perceive emotions and be aware of your surroundings, intelligence is your ability to reason, understand, and problem solve. The two often are confused, but they are different concepts.

Intelligence is being able to understand how to solve complex math equations, or simply how to get food out of a box. Intelligence is figuring out how best to fight off an attacker, or how to help a friend. Intelligence is an immensely complex subject that can be as simply as opening doors or as complex as painting a masterpiece. But, regardless of your physical ability to do something does not mean your mental intelligence is any lesser.

Animals are very intelligent, and with individuality even within certain species, such as humans, we see some individuals being more clever than others.

There are cats who know how to put in door codes to open the doors, pigs who know how to play videogames, primates who speak sign language, to fish who write messages with sand. Intelligence in the animal kingdom is so diverse and painfully obvious that it’s there that even without the thousands of studies confirming it, you simply need to spend some time with animals to see how smart they are.

And with intelligence comes personality. Personality is an individual’s own way of thinking, of acting, and being themselves. Often you hear people claim that personality exists based off how someone looks, such as the fabricated concept of dog “breeds,” claiming a dog behaves based by how they look. But, dogs are unique regardless of the “breed” they are called. No two German Shepherds are the same, just as no two humans, no two elephants, no two guinea pigs, no two anything will be identical. Not even identical twins are the same once the personalities come out.

Animal agriculture tries to cover up personalities and intelligence, claiming animals can’t think, reason, or have likes and dislikes. But pigs, chickens, whales, bears, birds, etc. all reflect individuals who refuse to be just like anyone else of their own species.

Animals have been known to work in teams, solve difficult problems, adapt to new situations, and improve skills, just as humans do.

Even bees can identify faces and remember them!

But, judging intelligence can be tricky. Animal species are different from our own, so things we assume as intelligent in our species, such as creating a rocket, isn’t what would be necessary nor intelligent for, say, a fish, who has no need for rockets.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Studying intelligence in different species, and how their personality is revealed, will always differ from species to species based off how that animal lives, the structure of their body, etc. Right now scientists do not have the perfect study to test this to truly understand intelligence, but maybe one day we will.

Sexuality:

Sexuality is another concept humans think only they are capable of. Animals do not solely have sex just to mindlessly breed. As those in animal agriculture or dog breeders can tell you, they have to force animals to breed. Animals have the same concept of rape as we do, and do not want to engage in intercourse with just anyone. This is why male animals in the wild must compete with each other to get a female to accept them for sex.

Rape racks, artificial insemination, and tying down females is normal for dog breeders, dairy farmers, etc. to make animals breed, and to force who they want to have sex with.

Rape in the wild is also not completely rare. Dolphins, chimps, penguins, and other animals have been caught raping individuals of their species or others, forcing themselves on the other individual against their will. And the victim fighting back to be free, clearly not wanting it.

Furthermore, prostitution has been seen, from penguins prostituting for nest building materials, to lionesses prostituting to save their cubs from a rival lion.

LGBT is another concept found heavy in different species. Over 400 animal species have gay, lesbian, even transgender individuals, and they have these gay relationships with others who also are gay. It’s not the same as dominating, as seen with some species such as dogs who hump to show dominance. No, they are actual gay relationships where animals who are gay have gay sex and gay love, and stay mated for years!

Animals also masturbate! From touching themselves with their paws, rubbing themselves against something, putting themselves into something not a vagina, even doing oral sex.

Sex, masturbation, and LGBT is not a human concept or gene. It’s an animal concept and gene, and exists in all animal species.

What About Plants?

Animals clearly are just as sentient and intelligent (probably more so) than humans. But, what about plants?

Plants lack a central nervous system, which is the only biological construction that allows pain and pain receptors to exist. Plants cannot feel pain.

Plants also lack a brain and neurons to process and collect data. They cannot think. Even the smallest insect has this allowing them to feel pain and some semblance of an ability to problem solve (science is still trying to figure out how much so), but plants do not have this.

Studies have shown plants may be able to communicate with chemicals, and even can react to touch, but these studies still do not conclude that plants actually feel pain nor can think.

But let’s pretend plants can feel pain. What then?

Being on a plant-based diet is still the solution. Consuming animal products causes MORE plants to be grown and harvested than if the world ate a plant-based diet. 80% of all farmland on Earth is used solely to feed livestock which produces LESS food. The amount of plants grown to feed livestock in ONE YEAR, if instead fed to humans, would end world hunger 14 times over.

So, if you truly believe that plants feel, think, and suffer, than arguing for their suffering is still an argument for veganism.

Not that any study exists showing plant sentience. In fact, plants show they want to be eaten, or at least certain parts consumed. Fruit, for example, is solely produced by plants to be eaten so that seeds can be dispersed. Even acorns, which are the seeds themselves, want to be collected by animals. Acorns, peanuts, hickory nuts, etc. are buried by squirrels, birds, etc. to be eaten at another date. But, many nuts will be forgotten and these are able to grow into new plants far away from the parent.

Plants also have shown they do better when old growth, such as leaves, are eaten, allowing younger, healthier leaves to grow, much as getting a hair cut encourages your hair to grow.

But not a single animal produces anything to be eaten, nor benefits from losing part of their body. And unlike plants, animals scream, fight, and do everything they can to stay alive.

For the facts on how many plants die due to animal agriculture, please see this paper.