Tag: OP

I wanna talk about my thesis work on here so bad sometimes but I know that if I did that my real name could be easily found once my shit gets published and that’s not something that can ever be allowed to happen. I’m afraid to even say what animal I’m working with because even that feels too specific.

Hey, quick question.

Why has it been generally assumed that invertebrates can’t feel pain?

Like why would we not assume they CAN until we have reason to think otherwise? And we have evidence to suggest some can. Like, lobsters that are boiled alive are full of stress hormones versus those given humane euthanasia before cooking. Just for a single example.

Even if you wanna argue their pain is “different” than a vertebrate’s, why does that really matter? Inverts, like any animals, respond to having their body damaged by moving away from the cause. They know, on some level, that their body is being damaged and they need to move away. Even if it’s not on a conscious level, they avoid things that hurt them. That’s kind of an important part of not dying as a wild animal!

Even if their response is less equivalent to “Oh fuck, that hurts” and is more like “Oh my god, I’m so stressed, my bodily integrity is being compromised”, I’ll ask again –

Why does it matter if their pain isn’t the “same” as ours? Why is the concept of pain in invertebrates such an offensive notion to suggest?

One time I was petsitting for the neighbors across the street and didn’t realize I forgot to bring their key until I’d crossed the street so I just went through the dog door to feed their dog and honestly I am the reason I don’t trust dog doors.

Why does our light turn itself on?

The grad student office I’m in has a motion sensor light that turns off after ten minutes if no one has moved enough to please it. Super annoying when you’re trying to work.

The thing is, almost without fail lately it’s been on every time I come in, even if no one else is in here. And if it’s been more than ten minutes since someone was in here, it doesn’t matter – it’ll still be on.

  • We used to have a sheet of blue paper in front that could be taped down. Worked for a while, keeps it from coming on if we’re in here, but the light would still be on sometimes when we weren’t.
  • Blue paper eventually fell off. Current setup is a sticky note over the sensor. The sides aren’t covered, so it would turn on when someone walked in, but kept the light off for the most part. Has since lost its effectiveness.
  • I’ve been turning it off with the button every time I go down the hall just to see if it stays off (you can turn it off with the button, but can’t make it stay on).
  • Last Saturday I was here alone (and even the hall lights are motion sensors so it’s dark until you walk by), and I peeked down the hall to see if our office light had turned on while I was doing animal care. As I was looking, it turned on. Literally no one else was in the building.

So my question is, how the hell does this happen?