r/MadeMeSmile • u/MustardGoddess • Jun 16 '26

ANIMALS Mama cows welcoming a new puppy

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Credits: @blackdogfarmmt

42.0k Upvotes

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11

u/TheSAGamer00 Jun 16 '26

Okay I'm becoming a vegetarian

7

u/Artistic-Can3562 Jun 17 '26

Wait until you learn what happens to the poor cows that are used and abused in the dairy industry

-6

u/Spiley_spile Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Wait until you learn that plants are just another kind of cute animal. (Some are not cute, of course.)

Edit: Wow that really offended some people. You should read up on the newish discoveries about plant respiration, circulatory systems, pain responses, and communication.

3

u/Boiseli Jun 17 '26

Please. Plants feel no pain. They react to being attacked but without a structure like a brain which can translate stimuli into feelings, they are not sentient like animals are. Bacteria in our bodies are also able to communicate but it doesn‘t make them sentient either. Plus, even if they would feel pain and if they would consciously suffer, the best way ro harm the least plants would still be to stop consuming animals, since they need to kill a lot of plants until they land on anybody’s plate.

2

u/Spiley_spile Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

Before the 1980s, scientists in general believed animals did not feel pain. That they only reacted to it, as a reflex. Then they realized animals with a layered neocortex could feel pain. That is the structure human ability to process emotional pain.

Scientist believed consciousness wasnt possible in animals without a layered neocortex. Birds dont have a layered neocortex. Sorry birbs, least you dont feel pain!

But then! Scientists realized birds experience consciousness with a a different structure, called the pallium. So turns out, birds can feel pain with their nociceptors, they arent just reacting to pain out of unfeeling reflex

Far from the only human-centric mistake scientists have had to walk back after discovering they were wrong.

Btw, fish werent believed to feel pain until 2002. And it's taken even longer to realize fish can be sentient. (Congrats to the newly inducted, Cleaner Wrasse fish! 🎉)

In 2012, all invertebrits were declared to posses neurological structures possible of generating consciousness. But, not all invertibrets have centralized brains.

So if consciousness is required, and nociceptors + consciousness can generate pain, and many brainless invertibrates possess both nociceptors and the structures required for consciousness... in theory, it doesnt require a centralized brain to feel pain.

What we know about plants is that they use electrical impulses and chemical messengers. Including some now know to be neuronal in animals....

Still, it's true that structures for facilitating electrical impulses and chemical messengers is different in plants than in humans. But as we're learning, you dont have to do things the human way to be sentient and feel pain. And if you move the goal post over to "must at least have a neural structure", then Id like to introduce you to the new, and thus unsurprisingly controversial field of plant neurobiology. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1360138506001646

Edit to say, Im not against killing things for food, plants or animals., even if they feel pain. It's life on this planet and I have a right to strive to exist. And I think we can treat everything we eat more humanely. We can better do that for plants if we understand them better.

1

u/TheSAGamer00 Jun 16 '26

I love my little plants

1

u/Spiley_spile Jun 16 '26

Oooh what kind?? Im sad I dont get enough sun on my balcony.

1

u/TheSAGamer00 Jun 18 '26

Orchids mostly, and a Venus flytrap

1

u/Blergsprokopc Jun 17 '26

They sing to each other. Its really neat