Animals and sentience
Watching these animals pursue their wants and needs reminds me that they are individuals with intentions and preferences. Their lives matter to them. Their desire for rewards is part of sentience — the capacity to feel. Sentience encompasses a universe of positive and negative physical and emotional experiences.
Today, most scientists agree that all vertebrate animals — mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — are, to varying degrees, sentient. A rich and varied collection of research has made the evidence impossible to dismiss.
But this perspective wasn't always popular.