We’ve seen so many reports that “scientists have discovered <insert animal here> may feel pain.” What would be surprising is to discover that some animal doesn’t feel pain. There’s no good reason to doubt they feel pain in the first place. I’ve also come across people asking “do animals have minds?” or “can animals think?” and again there’s no reason really to entertain the notion that they don’t. No good reason, that is, but if we keep pretending animals are fundamentally different from ourselves, we don’t have to face our knowledge (and we do know, but we don’t want to feel it) that they suffer when we continually abuse them.