Muang Ngoi Neua - Luang Prabang

Time for the gang to go its seperate ways. After a low-key breakfast we took a boat down-river to a non-descript town where the roads began again. Simon, Vero, and myself were headed to Luang Prabang while Katherine and Fred were headed elsewhere. Our bus was first to leave and there were hugs and well-wishes before we set off--only for the bus to stop fifty yards down the road. Katherine and Fred, in the meantime, caught up with us, and we had that awkward situation where you've already said your goodbyes and been solemn and offered serious words, and then you have to take the conversation back to more easygoing pastures until the real moment of departure arrives.

A live boar, trussed up with fraying rope and hauled onto the central aisle of the bus, provided a diversionary talking point while we waited. Eventually, we left, our animal cargo reminding me that if I thought I was uncomfortable the boar was in a whole different league. In circumstances like these--as an average Westerner shielded from the living conditions our livestock--I find it impossible not to consider the treatment of animals.

When the boar was pulled off the back of the bus--landing on the tarmac three feet below with a meaty slap and making a horrible whining noise--the first instinct, the natural instinct, is to imagine the animal is suffering. But is this really the case? Is the animal actually experiencing pain or is this just misplaced anthropomorphism? The boar has a face. It has two eyes, two ears, a mouth, and a nose. It has skin and hair, and below the hide we know its internal structure shares many organs with our own physiology. But do these similarities lead logically to the conclusion that the animal is experiencing mental phenomena like pain?

If I built a mechanical device--like Vaucanson's Digesting Duck of France--that displayed lifelike behavior such as waddling, squealing, eating etc you wouldn't ascribe any kind of awareness to the machine once you saw its cog-based insides. But isn't an animal just such a machine? To my mind, the only part of the animal we should be paying attention to is the brain. According to the current position in cognitive science, the mind is directly correlated with the activity of the brain. And the only cognitive feature of mind that should have any bearing on the question of animal suffering is consciousness. Without consciousness it doesn't seem possible to experience. For example, when a hospital patient is anaesthetized they are unable to feel the cut of the surgeon's life.

So the question becomes are animals conscious? Or, how high up the animal kingdom do you have to ascend before you find conscious creatures? Again, seeing those "puppy eyes" or that "playful grin" on your dog's face doesn't logically mean the dog is conscious. Sadly, modern neuroscience has not yet developed a theory of consciousness consistent with the biological structures of the brain. Current studies from the victims of brain injuries suggest that consciousness arises from a complex interplay of various localized parts. We know some structures or connections that are necessary for conscious experience but not the set which is sufficient for such experience. Some scientists have posited humankind's unique ability with language as the touchstone for consciousness--even going so far as to suggest that humans pre-1300BC or thereabouts had no awareness. If that's true then animals are nowhere near the threshold! This seems to be a minority position, however.

The fact that humans are naturally evolved creatures offers partial evidence that the animals most likely to share this special attribute are those species most closely related to ourselves. Primates in particular, and mammals in general. Some evolutionary psychologists have suggested that consciousness, like other skills such as sight or hearing, confers certain survival advantages--for example, problem solving, decision making, adaptation. An insight like this suggests that an indication that an animal posseses consciousness would be the manifestation of these abilities.

So where did all these speculations leave me as I rode that truck along dusty roads? The question of whether animals suffer is still an open one. The only way to be sure of not inflicting pain is to treat animals humanely. In my opinion, this doesn't preclude eating them though! Which is just as--self-servingly--well for me as I love a bacon butty.