{"id":202097,"date":"2024-12-21T11:05:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/octopuses-and-their-relatives-are-a-new-animal-welfare-frontier-%e2%88%92-heres-what-scientists-know-about-consciousness-in-these-unique-creatures"},"modified":"2024-12-21T11:05:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:05:55","slug":"octopuses-and-their-relatives-are-a-new-animal-welfare-frontier-%e2%88%92-heres-what-scientists-know-about-consciousness-in-these-unique-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/octopuses-and-their-relatives-are-a-new-animal-welfare-frontier-%e2%88%92-heres-what-scientists-know-about-consciousness-in-these-unique-creatures","title":{"rendered":"Octopuses and their relatives are a new animal welfare frontier \u2212 here\u2019s what scientists know about consciousness in these unique creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Jq8tHm0iys?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Considering what\u2019s known about their brain structures, sensory systems and learning capacity, it appears that cephalopods as a group may be similar in intelligence to vertebrates as a group. Since many societies have animal welfare standards for mice, rats, chickens and other vertebrates, logic would suggest that there\u2019s an equal case for regulations enforcing humane treatment of cephalopods.<\/p>\n<p>Such rules generally specify that when a species is held in captivity, its housing conditions should support the animal\u2019s welfare and natural behavior. This view has led some U.S. states to outlaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/data-products\/chart-gallery\/gallery\/chart-detail\/?chartId=106005\">confined cages for egg-laying hens<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/supreme-courts-ruling-on-humane-treatment-of-pigs-could-catalyze-a-wave-of-new-animal-welfare-laws-205548\">crates too narrow for pregnant sows to turn around<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Animal welfare regulations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/27\/science\/octopus-research-animal-rights.html\">say little about invertebrates<\/a>, but guidelines for the care and use of captive cephalopods have started to appear over the past decade. In 2010, the European Union required considering ethical issues when <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/eli\/dir\/2010\/63\/oj\">using cephalopods for research<\/a>. And in 2015, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaalac.org\/\">AAALAC International<\/a>, an international accreditation organization for ethical animal research, and <a href=\"https:\/\/felasa.eu\/\">the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations<\/a> promoted guidelines for the <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0023677215580006\">care and use of cephalopods in research<\/a>. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is <a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/grants\/guide\/notice-files\/NOT-OD-23-176.html\">currently considering similar guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Considering what\u2019s known about their brain structures, sensory systems and learning capacity, it appears that cephalopods as a group may be similar in intelligence to vertebrates as a group. Since many societies have animal welfare standards for mice, rats, chickens and other vertebrates, logic would suggest that there\u2019s an equal case for regulations enforcing humane [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":599,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1495,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-habitats","category-health","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}