Professor Jonathan Birch is a Professor of Philosophy in LSE’s Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and the Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience. His work on animal sentience, cognition and welfare, along with the ethics of AI, has gained wide recognition both academically and in public policy circles.
Professor Birch is the lead author of Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans, a report commissioned through LSE Consulting in 2021. This work helped shape the UK’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 by providing the evidence base that led to the inclusion of octopuses, crabs, lobsters and related species.
He is also the author of The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI, which answers critical questions that have disoriented people from academia and outside for many years. It lays out a precautionary framework that can help everyone make ethically sound and evidence-based decisions. Professor Birch is a firm believer in informed research being accessible to all, and his book is available to download for free.
In this edition of Expert Voices, Professor Birch reflects on the research areas he is passionate about, the value of applied research in shaping real policy and his experience of working with LSE Consulting.
Your passion for animal sentience has translated into reports, a book and the development of a dedicated Centre for its research. Tell us more about your passion. What drew you to it and how did it translate into all this incredible work?
We all grow up surrounded by other living creatures, even if we spend our whole childhood, as I did, in big cities. We all start wondering: Do flies have feelings? Is it OK to step on that ant? To flush that spider down the drain? What about killing animals for food – why do we do this if we don’t need to? We all find ourselves in those ethical grey areas and get confused and worried.
So maybe the real question is: why did you not lose the interest when you grew up? Crucially, I think I am pretty much indifferent to what the rest of society wants or expects. I reckon most philosophers have some version of this story. Society says: “Stop asking those questions!” – and we say “No!” if we’re feeling theatrical or else, more commonly, we just ignore those voices. That’s what philosophy is all about.
Your 2021 report informed the legislature and helped shape the UK’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. Animal sentience is now recognised in UK law but remains a complex and contested idea in the UK and around the world. What are the key challenges you face(d) as an academic and researcher in this field?
It’s challenging for anyone to make a career in animal sentience because it isn’t a traditional academic discipline. The key for me was to establish myself in a traditional discipline first (namely philosophy) and only then become increasingly transdisciplinary in the work I was doing.
With the new Centre, I’m trying to create an easier way into the area for the next generation. By bringing together experts in philosophy, zoology, veterinary medicine, psychology, sustainability, policy and more in a single room, united by a shared interest in exploring animal sentience, I’m creating the sort of environment I would have loved to see and struggled to find as a PhD student. And then the next step for me is to recruit some PhD students to develop new ideas in that space.
As Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, you lead an interdisciplinary team spanning fields from philosophy to neuroscience and veterinary science. How does this breadth of expertisestrengthen work that aims to influence public understanding, welfare standards and subsequently, policymaking?
It’s not always in that order, you know. Often policy comes first and public understanding follows later. Take an issue like the gassing of pigs with carbon dioxide – a terrible welfare issue that my team member, Steven McCulloch, a veterinarian, has been writing about for years. Pigs slowly asphyxiate across 1-2 minutes, and dissenting vets have long said: you cannot in good conscience call this “stunning”. It’s not an acceptable method. And now the government is very likely to ban the practice, according to the Animal Welfare Strategy published in December. But for the most part, the public is not even aware of the issue and would rather not think about it. So, I care a lot about public understanding, but we can’t always afford to wait for it.
As for breadth of expertise – well, my attitude is “all hands on deck”. For example, we need vets, but these conversations cannot simply be left to vets. It’s hard for vets to speak out about these issues because they face blowback from within their own profession. Researchers in the social sciences and humanities have a little more distance from the frontline and that’s important. We can explore questions like: “Where are animal welfare laws currently working and where are they failing? What would better laws look like?” without pressure to endorse the status quo.
Some of the work you do has significant ethical and political implications. Have you faced resistance when your findings challenge established ideas, practices and beliefs? How do you navigate around such situations?
A good example of research with significant impact is on the live boiling of lobsters – the government recently announced that this will be banned, and a large part of the basis for that ban is our report. But so far there has not been much resistance, relative to what I might have expected, and I think that’s probably because it’s such a clear-cut case. The lobsters are thrashing around in the water for around two minutes with a measurable storm of activity in their nervous system, and it’s just completely indefensible. Similarly with octopus farming, where our work has informed California’s recent ban – the case against it is just so clear. When presented with the evidence, few people will say “I’m in favour of that”.
There is increasing dialogue about how academics can create impact beyond academia and your work is a great illustration of this. From your perspective, what role can academic consulting play in bridging the gap between scientific research and the real-world impact?
It plays a big role for any government that wants to base policy on evidence. LSE Consulting was invaluable for the project we did for Defra on the Sentience Act: when Defra put out a tender, LSE Consulting helped me assemble a winning bid. For all LSE academics, it’s very useful indeed that LSE has its own in-house consulting agency. All the bureaucracy you fear when dealing with governments – LSE Consulting will take care of that.
Finally, what advice would you give to academics who are considering getting involved in consulting for the first time?
I would say: honest, clear, direct, forceful communication goes a long way. Don’t be afraid to make concrete, specific recommendations. If a Minister has got to the point of commissioning advice, it means they want recommendations. When doing this, you don’t have to embellish the evidence, suppress disagreement, or exaggerate your degree of certainty in any way. Our reports are full of language that conveys uncertainty and varying degrees of confidence. Their honesty is what makes them robust and authoritative. You can say: there are lots of uncertainties; nevertheless, in our judgement, the evidence we do have supports the following actions.
Through his leadership of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience and his consulting work, Professor Birch demonstrates how rigorous academic research can shape public understanding and directly influence policy. His experience highlights the wide potential of academic consulting in enabling research findings to support better outcomes for society and for animals.
To discuss ideas on collaboration or projects with Professor Birch, contact LSE Consulting at consulting@lse.ac.uk.
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