"Scientific taboos have shadowed historical debates about whether whether animals think or not…. Although many biologists witness animal consciousness in their fieldwork, their observations and ideas often remain silent in their published works…." (Fawcett, 2006)

Fawcett claims that,

[i]n an interdisciplinary trek across disciplines ranging from animal behaviour, and cognitive science to environmental philosophy and feminism, innumerable contradictions present themselves, including: taboos, disciplinary indoctrination and ridicule, inhibition of reporting (Griffin, 2001), and journals refusing to publish data that discusses animal consciousness (Searle 1990). (Fawcett, 2006; see also, Bekoff, Allen & Burghardt, 2002)

She then goes on to suggest that:

[w]e need to decolonize our relations with other animals, and our ways of knowing their consciousness, in order to expand the spaces that they inhabit in our imaginations, in public environmental discourse, and decision-making. (n.p.)