How do we know what another being is feeling, especially when that being cannot describe the experience in human language?

In the first episode of Animal Sentience: A World of Feeling, Andrew Rowan explores what scientists mean by animal sentience: the capacity to have subjective experiences that may feel positive, negative, or neutral. Beginning with a memorable mousebird from his childhood, Andrew considers how observation, behavior, physiology, brain activity, learning, and responses to pain relief can help scientists investigate animal feelings.

The episode moves from dogs trained to remain awake in MRI scanners to debates about consciousness, animal pain, and the consequences of assuming that a being cannot suffer simply because the evidence is incomplete. It also considers what the history of pain treatment in newborn infants can teach us about scientific uncertainty and the risks of overlooking experiences that cannot be verbally reported.

The central question is not simply whether animals are intelligent. It is about whether life feels like something from the animal’s perspective, and what that possibility means for how humans treat other beings.

The episode concludes by introducing the subject of Episode 2: one of the most debated questions in animal welfare science, Do fish feel pain?