Cockroaches are among the most persecuted invertebrates on Earth. The question of whether they merit welfare consideration is scientifically and ethically important.
Whether cockroaches have morally relevant experiences is genuinely uncertain. Their nervous systems are structurally different from vertebrates, but they show behavioural indicators of pain avoidance that parallel those used to infer pain in fish and crustaceans. The precautionary principle suggests that methods of pest control causing prolonged suffering — some insecticides cause slow paralysis over hours — merit evaluation compared to faster alternatives. This is not an argument for equal moral weight with vertebrates, but for incorporating cockroach welfare into the expanding moral circle of invertebrate consideration.