This article on PsychologyToday.com explains that scientists have aqcuired enough evidence to confidently assert that animals are conscious beings. Some, however, are shocked that this still had to be proven…

Why? The constantly asked question is: How do we know? How can we really, really know?

This pretty much sums it up:

Some might say we didn’t really know that other animals were conscious but this is an incredibly naive view given what we know about the neurobiology and cognitive and emotional lives of other animals. Indeed, it was appeals to these very data that led to the conclusions of this group of scientists. But did we really need a group of internationally recognized scientists to tell us that the data are really okay?  Yes and no, but let’s thank them for doing this. – Marc Bekoff, Ph. D.