Dr Andrew Crump
Lecturer - Animal Welfare & Cognition
Department: Pathobiology & Population Sciences
Research Groups: Brain Health and Behaviour, Animal Welfare Science and Ethics
Andrew is a part-time Lecturer in Animal Cognition and Welfare. Specialising in invertebrate welfare and animal sentience, he is especially eager to turn scientific findings into real-world impact.
Andrew joined the RVC in February 2023, as a part-time Lecturer in Animal Cognition and Welfare. He also works part-time as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Animal Sentience at the London School of Economics, a role he began full-time in 2020. He has experience working on various species, including macaques, dogs, cattle, chickens, hermit crabs, and bees.
In 2021, Andrew was part of a team, led by Prof. Jonathan Birch, that advised the UK government to protect certain invertebrates under animal welfare law. The government responded by amending the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, so it now covers cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans.
Andrew’s background is in biology. He completed a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast in 2020, supervised by Dr. Gareth Arnott and Dr. Emily Bethell. His thesis focused on animal behaviour and welfare. In 2016, he was awarded a first-class degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford.
A champion of open and reproducible science, Andrew is the RVC's Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network. He also serves on the Animal Welfare Research Network's Coordinating Group and is an Affiliate of the Insect Welfare Research Society.
Every year, humans slaughter over a trillion insects and perhaps 500 billion crustaceans. These numbers dwarf the combined total of mammal and bird livestock, yet animal welfare scientists almost exclusively study vertebrates. Andrew aims to improve our understanding of invertebrate welfare and apply this knowledge to minimise any pain and suffering.
A key question is whether and which invertebrates are sentient: capable of subjectively experienced mental states (“feelings”). An animal must be sentient, in Andrew’s view, for us to care about its welfare. He, therefore, investigates cognitive and behavioural indicators of sentience in bees. Andrew and colleagues have found that bees are not simple stimulus-response robots, but react to stimuli in sophisticated, context-dependent ways. These findings are at least consistent with sentience.
Andrew has also worked on crested macaques, dogs, dairy cattle, broiler chickens, and Siamese fighting fish.
Crump, A., Gibbons, M., Barrett, M., Birch, J., & Chittka, L. (2023). Is it time for insect researchers to consider their subjects’ welfare?. PLoS Biology, 21(6), e3002138.
Baqueiro-Espinosa, U., Lo, T. H., Hunter, R., Donnelly, P., McEvoy, V., Crump, A., & Arnott, G. (2023). Positive human interaction improves welfare in commercial breeding dogs: Evidence from attention bias and human sociability tests. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 262, 105904.
Crump, A., Aiken, C., Cunningham, E. M., & Arnott, G. (2023). Short-Term Microplastic Exposure Impairs Cognition in Hermit Crabs. Animals, 13(6), 1055.
McDaid, A., Cunningham, E. M., Crump, A., Arnott, G., & Hardiman, G. (2023). The influence of microplastics on shell selection and startle behaviour of the common European hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus. Science of the Total Environment, 855, 158576.
Gibbons, M., Crump, A., Barrett, M., Sarlak, S., Birch, J., & Chittka, L. (2022). Can insects feel pain? A review of the neural and behavioural evidence. In R. Jurenka (Ed.), Advances in Insect Physiology (pp. 155-229). Academic Press.
Crump, A., Browning, H., Schnell, A. K., Burn, C., & Birch, J. (2022). Animal sentience research: Synthesis and proposals. Animal Sentience, 32(31).
Crump, A., Browning, H., Schnell, A. K., Burn, C., & Birch, J. (2022). Invertebrate sentience and sustainable seafood. Nature Food, 1-3.
McEvoy, V., Baqueiro Espinosa, U., Crump, A., & Arnott, G. (2022). Canine socialisation: A systematic narrative review. Animals, 12(21), 2895.
Crump, A. (2022). Animal sentience science and policy. Animal Sentience, 31(15).
Birch, J., & Crump, A. (2022). The lights and shadows of consciousness. Current Biology, 32, R1-R3.
Gibbons, M., Versace, E., Crump, A., Baran, B., & Chittka, L. (2022). Motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumblebees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), e2205821119.
Crump, A., Browning, H., Schnell, A. K., Burn, C., & Birch, J. (2022). Sentience in decapod crustaceans: A general framework and review of the evidence. Animal Sentience, 7(32).
Crump, A., Jenkins, K., Bethell, E. J., Ferris, C. P., & Arnott, G. (2022). Pasture access and eye temperature in dairy cows. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 1-9.
Crump, A., & Birch, J. (2022). Animal consciousness: The interplay of neural and behavioural evidence. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 29(3-4), 104-128.
Birch, J., Broom, D. M., Browning, H., Crump, A., Ginsburg, S., Halina, M., Harrison, D., … & Zacks, O. (2022). How should we study animal consciousness scientifically? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 29(3-4), 8-28.
Birch, J., Burn, C., Schnell, A. K., Browning, H., & Crump, A. (2021). Review of the evidence of sentience in cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans. Department for Environment, Food, & Rural Affairs (Defra).
Crump, A., & Birch, J. (2021). Separating conscious and unconscious perception in animals. Learning & Behavior, 1-2.
Cunningham, E. M., Mundye, A., Kregting, L., Dick, J., Crump, A., Riddell, G., & Arnott, G. (2021). Animal contests and microplastics: Evidence of disrupted behaviour in hermit crabs Pagurus bernhardus. Royal Society Open Science, 8, 211089.
Anderson, M. G., Campbell, A. M., Crump, A., Arnott, G., & Jacobs, L. (2021). Environmental complexity positively impacts affective states of broiler chickens. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 16966.
Anderson, M. G., Campbell, A. M., Crump, A., Arnott, G., Newberry, R. C., & Jacobs, L. (2021). Effect of environmental complexity and stocking density on fear and anxiety in broiler chickens. Animals, 11(8), 2383.
Crump, A., Jenkins, K., Bethell, E. J., Ferris, C. P., Kabboush, H., Weller, J., & Arnott, G. (2021). Optimism and pasture access in dairy cows. Scientific Reports, 11, 4882.
Crump, A., Bethell, E. J., Earley, R., Lee, V. E., Mendl, M., Oldham, L., Turner, S. P., & Arnott, G. (2020). Emotion in animal contests. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287, 28720201715.
Crump, A., Mullens, C., Bethell, E. J., Cunningham, E. M., & Arnott, G. (2020). Microplastics disrupt hermit crab shell selection. Biology Letters, 16(4), 20200030.
Crump, A., Jenkins, K., Bethell, E. J., Ferris, C. P., & Arnott, G. (2019). Pasture access affects behavioral indicators of wellbeing in dairy cows. Animals, 9(11), 902.
Crump, A., Arnott, G., & Bethell, E. J. (2018). Affect-driven attention biases as animal welfare indicators: Review and methods. Animals, 8(8), 136.
Andrew teaches animal behaviour, cognition, and welfare, especially for the RVC’s BSc Biological Sciences courses. He's the Deputy Module Leader of "Animals & Human Society" (3rd year Biosciences).
Andrew welcomes enquiries about supervising undergraduate and postgraduate student projects.
Andrew works with governments and NGOs to inform animal welfare policy. He and his colleagues recommended including certain invertebrates in the UK's Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, leading to a parliamentary amendment and legal protection for cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans.
In partnership with Defra and NGOs, Andrew has chaired stakeholder workshops on invertebrate sentience. South Korean and New Zealand government advisors have also invited him to discuss welfare law.
As a hired consultant, Andrew has advised industry on animal welfare issues.