Do animals experience suffering?

People are animals. If you shoot us, of course we will feel pain.

Yes they do feel suffering. In fact I've seen our dog cried and also feel angry to us. They also can feel hunger. All animals have feelings.

I am sure that they do after all they are part of this world and this world is full of a lot of sufferings.

I think most all animals can. You know some of them can because they whimper when they are in pain. I didn't realize a worm didn't have a brain. I guess you're never too old to learn something new, lol.

I never really thought about insects and such- Just pets and other large animals- I imagine if you torment any animal it would suffer- but if you just squash it- I think it would be ok.

Well yes of course they can. If they can feel pain, then they can suffer. Certainly with larger mammals, they have a heart, a liver, and kidneys, ears, eyes, and red blood just like a human being. If you cut them, they bleed, and if they are hurt then they cry. And with that physical pain, goes mental anguish and suffering. Even insects, fish and birds have a capacity for suffering too. In my opinion, all living creatures can feel fear and pain, which is why I am vegetarian, and cannot cope with the idea of hunting, fishing, killing,or eating other living flesh. Everything has a right to kindness, compassio, and respect in my view.

Of course I don't have esp..but in my opinion I think ALL animals, insects, etc..do suffer and feel pain as we do. I think it's horrible that people just don't care most of the time. Not that I am perfect, I've killed my share of bugs in my life as well, but once you think about it..they were put on earth for a reason too..Is it our place to say when they leave this world..?

What do you mean a worm does not have a brain? Even a fly has a brain, it's just very small. The animals with the smallest brain feels the basic feelings of pain, no pain, illness, health, hunger, and so on, whereas animails like dogs and cats and other mammals, etc. have morecomplex emotions, and humans have the ability to analyze these feelings.

I believe all creatures no matter how big or how tiny the size they are they do experience pain and suffer just like us, the human being. We could not know exactly as we couldn’t go into their world. I like animals but I don’t keep any fish or birds because I know it’s unfair for them to stay in a bird cage or an aquarium. I prefer them to fly freely in the air or swimming happily in the vast river or sea. I like planting flowers and vegetable I believe plants could be susceptible to pain. I feel sorry when I’m cutting my vegetables for preparing dish.

You bring up a decent point. Tiny bugs are pretty easy to kill since their pain isn't that easy for us to see, at least not usually. One time I experienced a creepy coincidence when I told someone that black widow spiders hang out in dark, low-traffic places. As I was saying this, I was leaning on the wooden railing of the back porch, when I "popped" something with my middle finger. I looked to see what it was, and...wait for it...it was a black widow!!! The popping sensation I had felt was from popping the poor spider's abdomen. It dragged itself along with a limp, which is more than I would do if a car ran across my back. But I could tell just by watching it that it was in pain. It's movements told more of the story than the plain fact that it was dragging its butt along; these movements had agony written all over them. I took my shoe and put it out of its misery. People with advanced diabetes or arthritis tend to be clumsy, in part because their sense of touch is largely diminished. I cut halfway through my left hand with a radial arm saw almost four years ago, severing the index finger. Microsurgery put my hand back together, even restoring use of my finger. But my typing tends to be a bit more erroneous, because I don't always know quite where my finger is. And I've been typing for the better half of my life. Nerves play a big role in dexterity. The ability to sense pressure, heat, and texture also enable one to feel pain when certain thresholds are exceeded. Bugs might not be able to reason, or speak in polyphonic dialects, but they know pain, just as well as they know their four basic needs.

If I was in hospital and in pain after an operation, I would not consider myself as suffering because I would accept the pain as a part of the healing process. Therefore, I would say the difference between my suffering and non-suffering is acceptance. If I was to lose a love one, I would consider that as suffering, because I would want him/her to come back and the suffering would not cease until I could accept that they were gone. Therefore, how can we begin to know if an animal is suffering, because communication is so limited. If an animal is in pain, how can we know if it is in acceptance or not? Suffering seems to begin when we desire to change something that cannot be changed. Buddha, in his enlightenment said that the cause of all suffering was desire.. I don't think he was wrong here.. :-)

They totally can suffer and feel it. I am a vegetarian and think that some animals suffer terribly in production of meat products. I don't put down people who eat meat. My man is a hunter and fisherman and he does eat meat and that is his choice but not mine and that is fine. But also other animals suffer. Our BabyBJ is missing my daughter who has been at camp for a week now. He goes into her room and cries and cries. When I pull into the drive way he is crying at the door and when we let him out he looks for her then back in her room and cries. He is suffering without her bad.I give him lots of loving but she is his momma and he misses her so much.

I'm not sure I would call pain and suffering the same thing, but it does seem apparent that at least certain animals (I can't think of any mammal that doesn't display pain behaviour). I would argue that pain is not a good thing to experience and as such we should try to avoid inflicting pain to others. Essentially, if we don't know if they can feel pain, we could assume they can just in case.