Do insects feel?
There's more and more evidence that insects are sentient. For example:
- their behavior is flexible: they make decisions when the situation changes, they learn, and they combine different kinds of information;
- they have centralized nervous systems, with brains;
- their brains have electrical activity and connections organized in ways similar to those of bigger animals;
- parts of their brains combine information from the senses, store memories, and organize movement.
The author concludes this is more than enough to give insects, at the very least, the benefit of the doubt.
How many insects are exploited
The use of insects has grown a lot. Some yearly numbers:
- cochineal insects killed to make carmine dye (used in food and cosmetics): between 4.6 and 21 trillion;
- insects killed for consumption (food and animal feed): between 2 and 3.2 trillion;
- silkworms killed to make silk: between 420 billion and 1 trillion;
- bees kept for honey: between 1.4 and 4.8 trillion alive at any given time.
Why oppose it
- It causes suffering and death to an enormous number of sentient beings.
- Like all exploitation, it gives unfair weight to each individual's good.
- It decides who gets harmed by species.
- Nobody would approve of it without knowing whether they'd be born a human or an insect.
"But they don't suffer much, do they?"
Even if they suffered only a little, they'd still suffer and lose their lives. And a smaller brain doesn't mean suffering less. Pain exists to drive behavior; in simpler animals, it might even need to be more intense to work.
In short
- There's good evidence that insects feel.
- Trillions of insects are exploited every year.
- Having a small brain doesn't mean suffering little.