Animals also may experience pleasures that go beyond human senses. Electric fish seem to enjoy giving each other stimulating charges, for example, while dolphins use "low-pitched buzzing clicks" near their genital areas, which "appears to be a way of giving pleasure to another." Martin Stephens, vice president of Animal Research Issues at The Humane Society of the United States, told Discovery News that discussions of animal pleasure are often left out of science, with the emphasis instead going to negative experiences, like pain and stress. The two extremes of the feeling spectrum shouldn't be mutually exclusive, however. "Balcombe is right that depriving an animal of positive experience through captivity and killing is typically not factored into the cost/benefit assessments underlying the review of animal experiments," Stephens said, adding that many scientists undervalue positive experiences felt by animals as being "mere rewards" linked to evolutionary benefits. While virtually all animals are pleasure seekers, Balcombe believes a few species miss out on fun. He said, "The experience of pleasure requires some level of conscious awareness, so we may safely exclude sponges and jellyfish from the list." Related Links: Discovery News Blog: Born Animal |
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