known to be experiencing pain. cutting throat nerves, not fiom Calvesfeel the pain Johnsondeveloped a way of the Iossofblood, suggesting lightly anaesthetising animals the severednerves send pain of religiousslaughter so that although they experienced signals until the time of death. no pain, the same electrical pain Finally, they stunned animals BRAINsignals have shown shechita and Muslim dhabiha. signals could be reliably detected, 5 secondsafter incision and that calvesdo appear to feel pain Animal welfare groups have long showing they would have suffered showedthat this makesthe pain when slaughtered according to argued that on welfare grounds, painif awake. signal disappear instantly. fewish and Muslim religious the exemptions should be lifted, The team first cut calves'throats "It wasn't a surprise to me, law, strengthening the casefor as theyhave been inNorway. in a procedure matching that of adapting the practicesto make fohnson'swork, funded bythe Jewishand Muslim slaughter "Thereligious community as them more humane. "I thinkour UK and New Zealandagriculture methods. They detected a pain adamantthat animalsdon't work is the best evidenceyet that ministries,builds on findings in signal lasting for up to 2 minutes experienceany painwhen it's paintul," saysCraig|ohnson, human volunteers of specific after the incision. When their theirthroatsare cut" who led the study at Massey patterns of brain electrical activity thioats are cut, calvesgenerally University in Palmerston North, when they feel pain. Recorded lose consciousnessafterto to but in terms of the religious NewZealand. with electroencephalograms,the 3o seconds,sometimes longer. community, they are adamant Johnson summarised his patterns were reproducible in at The researchersthen showed animals don't experienceany pain, results last week in London when Ieasteight other mammal species that the pain originates from so the results might be a surprise receiving an award from the UK to them," saysfohnson. He praised Humane Slaughter Association. Muslim dhabiha practitioners in His team also showed that if the New Zealandand elsewherewho animal is concussedthrough have already adopted stunning stunning, signals corresponding prior to slaughter.They use a to pain disappear (NewZealand form of electrical stunningwhich VeterinaryI oumal, vol Sl, p ll). animals quickly recoverfrom if The findings increasepressure not slaughtered,proving that the on religious groups that practice stunned animal is "healthy", slaughter without stunning to thereby qualifying as halal. reconsider."It provides further Spokesmenfor both faiths evidence,ifit was needed,that responded by claiming that slaughtering an animal without stunning itself hurts animals. stunning it first is painful," says ShechitaUK saysthat the throat ChristopherWathes of the UK cut is so rapid that it servesas Farm Animal Welfare Council. its own "stun". Ahmed Ghanem. which has long argued for the a halal slaughterman basedin practice to end. New Zealand,says that blood In most western countries, doesn't drain properly from animals must be stunned before stunned animals, although this they are slaughtered,but there has been countered by recent is an exemption for religious researchat the University of practice,most prominently fewish Bristolinthe UK. AndyCoghlanr

MasahiroMori noticed that, although healthyand normal. Another 1O.1073/pnas.091O0531OE). Macaquesare we like robotsthathave some human suggestionis that ifs got moreto "Theseprimates don't participate creepedout by features,we startto find them eerie do with socialtaboos about death in humanculture, which suggests the whenthey looktoo real. He called becausehuman-like, non-humans uncannyvalley has a biologicalbasis," cyber-selves thisdip in humanoidpopularity the looklike corpses and remind us of saysKarl MacDorman of Indiana "uncannyvalley''. Since then, the ourown mortality. Universityin Indianapolis. ITTURNSout monkeysare as responsehas been blamed forthe Asif Ghazanfarand Shawn Ultimately,Ghazanfar and creepedout bytheir CCIcounterparts unpopularityof someCGlfilms with Steckenfinger of PrincetonUniversity Steckenfingerhope to get their aswe are.Show them a monkey realisticcharacters, and it istouted as wonderedhow five macaqueswould monkeysto'tlimb ouf of the uncanny facethafs uncannilylife-like and the reasonPixar stuckto characters respondto monkeyavatars. They valleyand usethe avatarsas they lookaway. This might meanthat with cartoonishfeatures. foundthatthe monkeysspent less substitutesfor realmonkeys in social thereis an evolutionary explanation Severalhypotheses have been timelooking atthe mostrealistic interactionexperiments. They hope for ourdisgust of non-humanswho put forwardto explainthe uncanny avatars- whichthey saysuggests the experimentscould shed light on seemtoo real. valley.One idea is that it is an evolved they disfikethem (Proceedingsof the humancommunication disorders like ln the 1970s,Japaneseroboticist responseto somethingthatl not NotionolAcodemy ofScience+ DOI: autism.Jessica Hamzelou I

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