Animal sentience
Animals can experience positive and negative feelings, from pleasure, joy and excitement to anxiety, pain and distress. This ability to have ‘feelings that matter’ is called animal sentience.
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Why is animal sentience important?
Animals don’t just respond to the world around them; they experience it. Every animal is an individual, with their own feelings and preferences. Learning more about their emotional needs can help us give them good lives, whether they’re in our homes, on farms, in the wild or used in science.
This is fundamental to our vision of a world where all animals are respected and treated with kindness and compassion. It can help us make kinder choices and champion better welfare for every kind of animal.
Our 2026 Kindness Index shows that more people are understanding and recognising animal sentience. It also found that animal welfare ranks as the second most important cause to the public. Most people accept that animals can feel emotions like happiness, excitement and fear. But those feelings can be triggered by different things – for example, something that’s exciting to a human can feel threatening to a dog. We don’t always interpret animals’ behaviours correctly, if we judge these by human standards.
We don’t always treat animals consistently either. We might care deeply about a dog’s wellbeing, yet choose a flat-faced breed whose exaggerated features can cause lifelong health problems. And animals of the same species can be treated very differently depending on the role we give them – a rabbit living as a much-loved companion, for example, may have a very different life from one farmed for meat or fur.
Explore RSPCA animal sentience research and discover more about the science behind animals’ feelings and behaviour.
As we learn more about just how sentient animals are, the protection we give should increase.
Which animals are sentient?
Scientific evidence shows that many more animals are sentient than we might assume. The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 recognises all vertebrate animals – including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes – as sentient. It also recognises decapod crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, and cephalopod molluscs, including octopuses, cuttlefish and squid.
Research into other invertebrates, including insects, is continuing. Some meet a number of the scientific criteria associated with sentience, so it's important that we treat them with compassion and respect too.
How do we know animals are sentient?
An animal can't tell us how they're feeling in words, so scientists look at a range of evidence.
This includes whether they have nerves that detect harmful stimuli, how they behave when something causes them pain and whether their responses change when they're given pain relief.
Scientists can also study whether animals learn from harmful experiences or make complex decisions. For example, an animal might weigh up a potential reward, such as food, against the risk of approaching something they find threatening.
Are farmed animals sentient?
Yes. Farmed animals including cows, pigs, chickens, sheep and fishes are sentient. They can feel both positive and negative emotions, and have individual needs and preferences.
Farmed animals are more complex than many of us realise. Pigs form strong social bonds, cows develop friendships and chickens can recognise individual faces.
Good farming practices need to support animals’ physical and mental wellbeing. This means considering how they’re handled, the environment they live in, their relationships with other animals and whether they’re able to express their natural behaviours.
Animal sentience laws
The Sentience Act requires the government to consider how its policies might affect the welfare of all sentient animals, including farmed, companion, lab and free-living wild animals. This covers the widest range of species, and human impacts on animals, of any UK law.
There are other laws to protect animals, although they don't all cover the same species or circumstances. Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, people can be prosecuted for mistreating animals, but the Act does not cover free-living wild animals or invertebrates.
Farmed animals are covered by the Animal Welfare Act, as well as the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007, which set minimum welfare standards. Codes of Practice also provide guidance on the standards farmers must meet for different species, including cattle, pigs, sheep, laying hens and meat chickens.
However, these are minimum standards, and some painful procedures are permitted in certain circumstances. For example, beak trimming is permitted to help prevent feather pecking in hens.
Animal sentience research
The area of animal sentience is an expanding field, with an increasing amount of research into, and discussion on the topic.
In 2019, we held a ground-breaking conference with Oxford University, ‘Animal Sentience: science, welfare and 'real world' application’, featuring talks from world-leading scientists investigating animal sentience. More recently, the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience also uses the science of animal minds to design policies, laws and behaviours that better care for animals.
How can I help?
Knowing that animals have feelings that matter can help us make a positive impact on their lives. Here are some simple ways you can help:
Understand the animals in your life
If you care for an animal, learn about what they need to be physically and mentally healthy. Use reliable, evidence-based information and be prepared to rethink assumptions about what their behaviour means.
The signals an animal gives you can tell you a lot about how best to respond, if you interpret them correctly.
Make kinder food choices
The animals farmed for the food we eat are sentient too. If you choose to eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy, understanding how animals are reared can help you make choices that support better welfare.
Choosing higher-welfare products, including those carrying the RSPCA Assured mark, is one way to help.
Small changes to what we eat can make a big difference too. Eating fewer animal products can help reduce the number of animals being farmed. Find out how small, realistic changes can add up with our Food for Thought campaign.
Think about your impact on other animals
Our actions can affect animals, even when we don't intend them to. Give wild animals the space they need, don't allow dogs to chase wildlife and look for humane ways to prevent or resolve conflicts with animals such as rodents, gulls and foxes.
Helping children understand animal behaviour and how to treat animals with kindness and respect can make a difference too. When looking at wild animals together, remember that handling or disturbing animals can cause distress, even when we mean no harm.
Speak up for farmed animals
You can also use your voice to help improve the lives of farmed animals. Our campaigns tackle some of the biggest welfare issues in farming, from cages and chicken welfare to slaughter and food labelling. Explore our farming campaigns and find out how you can take action.
Scientists on animal sentience
The RSPCA has long supported research and informed discussion about animal sentience and what it means for animal welfare. In 2019, our conference with Oxford University, ‘Animal Sentience: science, welfare and 'real world' application’, featured talks from world-leading scientists investigating animal sentience. Explore the presentations, workshop discussions and other resources on our Science website.
