Invertebrates are harmed in human activities across many varied sectors and industries: crustaceans, insects, and mollusks are killed and eaten; cuttlefish are killed and their ink is extracted for use in cooking; cochineals are killed for dye production; and silkworms are boiled alive for silk production.
Invertebrates are animals who do not possess or develop a spinal
column, including insects, mollusks, and corals. Although the exact
number of invertebrate species that exist on Earth is not known,
estimates repeatedly find them to comprise 95% of all animal
species and greater than 99.9% of all individual animals. Because
of the enormous number of invertebrates, if invertebrates matter
morally, they are also of enormous moral importance.
Invertebrates matter morally if they are sentient. Sentience is the
ability to have subjective experience. It is sometimes described
using the related words consciousness or phenomenal consciousness.
If invertebrates are sentient, this would mean they have the ability
to experience pain and pleasure, features that would warrant them
inclusion in our moral circle. Since what happens to them matters to
them, sentient animals have states of welfare, and so can be helped
or harmed by events that increase or decrease that welfare.
Unfortunately, the situation of invertebrates is grave.
Invertebrates are harmed in human activities across many varied
sectors and industries: crustaceans, insects, and mollusks are
killed and eaten; cuttlefish are killed and their ink is extracted
for use in cooking; cochineals are killed for dye production; and
silkworms are boiled alive for silk production.3 Many are also
killed by insecticides. Beyond this, invertebrates in the wild face
constant threat of disease, starvation, changes in their
environments, and other sources of harm. Were an invertebrate in any
of these situations replaced with an animal we attribute sentience
to, such as other humans or large mammals, it would appear
self-evident that these experiences would cause a great deal of
suffering....
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