The paradox of studying animal consciousness: can there really be a science of animal welfare?

There is a seeming paradox at the heart of a science of animal welfare. To be comprehensive enough to include what most people mean by animal welfare, it must involve understanding what animals consciously feel and experience. But to be a science, it has to embrace the one thing that biology finds the most intractable problem of all, namely animal consciousness. Professor Marian Dawkins, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, will explore this apparent paradox and whether there is, or could be, a way out of it.

Tags: animals, Marian Dawkins, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, University of Oxford, welfare, zoology