The physiology of suffering

Abstract

So far, we have seen that physical health is a valuable guide to an animal’s well-being but that differences between wild and domestic animals do not in themselves provide an adequate criterion of suffering. There have, however, been hints of ‘other evidence’ that might be used to show more definitely whether an animal is suffering or not. In this chapter we will look at one source of that other evidence: the physiological state of the animal. The first problem here is to decide what to measure, that is, which physiological variables give the best indications of suffering.