Sentience
To be sentient is to have the capacity to feel. It refers to the capacity to have feelings with a positive or negative quality, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, boredom, excitement, frustration, anxiety, despair, hope, and joy. These feelings have the elusive property that philosophers like to call “phenomenal consciousness”. It feels like something to have them. We know that sentient animals, human and nonhuman, have experiences that are positive or negative. To believe that we are the only species to have these feelings and emotions is human arrogance. We must consider that we affect other animals through our actions and so they must be given moral consideration.
“When we suffer, we suffer as equals.
In our capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig, is a sheep, is a boy.”Philip Wollen
philanthropist, environmentalist, animal rights activist