In that vein though we also need to bring into question things like should a highly intelligent group animal be even kept at all? I had a rabbit for 10 years, he was my best friend, I kept his hutch nice and clean and was free to roam around the garden at will. Did I look after him? I feel I did but his instinct was to be out with other rabbits as part of a group.
This is my mastermind subject .. I even have a book:
https://amzn.to/2I2niiY Yes, you did look after him to the best of your knowledge at the time. But scientific research is continually moving our knowledge on wards. We know from observation of wild rabbits and scientific research you are exactly right, rabbits do prefer company of their own kind. The research involved, for example, using weighted doors to determine the effort rabbits would go to obtain different resources like food and interaction with another rabbit. The current recommended practice is to keep rabbits in pairs or small social groups. But, we should certainly consider whether we can meet all the needs of an animal before keeping it.
[URL='https://www.ukaps.org/forum/members/bubblingunder.16030/']BubblingUnder[/URL] said:
I'm not sure you should try to analyse this sort of thing too hard you should try to provide the best you can reasonably with the current knowledge available. [...] The problem with humans over analysing this is they can't know what an animal prefers if the brain of a fish is the size of a pea. As a trade off would I prefer a long safe life where I am fed & there is no famine or a short life in the wild with hunger & fear of predators ?
That's exactly what we should do, use scientific methods to continually analyse and work on improving our knowledge and understanding of the animals we keep and use that to make improvements to their welfare. Your preference would be for a 6x4 cell where you are always feed and protected from conflict? That's the stage a lot of animal care is at. What we are realising is that caring for physical needs is just one aspect of welfare. That challenges, interaction and even the opportunity for play are also essential to welfare.
We can and do provide the opportunity for dogs to engage in natural behaviours related to hunting. For example, by laying scent trails, hiding objects to find, raw feeding, etc. when you start to look beyond just throwing a tennis ball there is a whole range of opportunity you can provide to encourage them to use natural instincts and abilities.
It might seem like understanding tiny fish brains would be impossible, but it's not. Scientists are working on that:
How strong are familiarity preferences in shoaling fish:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347200916658
What about taste preferences:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1467-2979.2003.00121.x
But we can work preferences out ourselves too, from researching the choices wild fish make and observing our own. Do you fish show preference for certain foods? Will fish pick a particularly type of cave for spawning over another? If you get a big tank, and plant half of it - you'll quickly see if a species show a preference for dense cover, open water or the margins between. They key is often providing choices so you can observe your fish make them and then develop an understanding of their preferences.