The Animal Sentience Bill (“the Bill”) was introduced by the UK government on May 11 as part of a raft of animal welfare reforms. It replaces EU legislation which legally recognised that animals can feel pain and experience emotions.

Currently, the Bill currently only applies to “vertebrate” animals – animals with a backbone. However, Crustacean Compassion, whose supporters include Chris Packham, Bill Bailey, the RSPCA and the British Veterinary Association, argue that the Bill does not go far enough. Scientific evidence has shown that decapod crustaceans, a group which includes crabs and lobsters, can feel pain and suffer and should be included in animal welfare legislation.

Crustacean Compassion points out that this means that they can be routinely treated as if they were no more sentient than a vegetable. Decapod crustaceans are frequently boiled or dismembered alive, and research shows that a brown crab may take up to three minutes to die in boiling water.

Electrical stunning before slaughter, they argue, is currently the most humane method of dispatching the animals. Last year, a fishmonger came under fire for using Amazon to deliver live lobsters through the ordinary post, and a London supermarket was criticised in 2015 for selling crabs shrink-wrapped whilst still alive.

Maisie Tomlinson of Crustacean Compassion comments: -

“We hope the House of Lords votes to accept this amendment at the earliest opportunity. Decapod crustaceans are Britain’s forgotten animals, widely recognised as sentient but subject to brutal treatment in the food industry…The government made a manifesto commitment to promote high standards of animal welfare, and prides itself on being led by the science. It cannot decide which animals are sentient based on political convenience, and if the independent review of decapod and cephalopod sentience is so critical to the Lords’ decision-making, we urge them not to delay its release any further,”

In 2020, in response to pressure from animal welfare campaigners, the government commissioned an independent scientific review of the evidence for the sentience of decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs. They have given no release date for the report despite repeated Parliamentary and House of Lords requests.

Jonathan Birch, leader of the Foundations of Animal Sentience project at the London School of Economics, who is studying the issue for Parliament, said a growing body of evidence points to feeling and emotion in all sorts of invertebrates. Though he worries that the new oversight committee might prove toothless and that little might change, he’s hopeful. “It’s a good starting point,” he said, “and it’s better than nothing.”

Donald Broom, a Cambridge University authority on animal welfare contends that the big picture has changed: -

“I think of the new idea as ‘one biology.’ That human animals and other animals are extraordinarily similar…and that sentient animals are individuals who feel pain and suffering and all sorts of other things, and that should be taken into account.”

Whilst other countries such as Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand include decapod crustaceans in their animal welfare laws, decapods are not currently included in the definition of ‘animal’ in most of the UK’s animal welfare legislation.

When the Conservative Party’s Lord Richard Benyon introduced the Bill in June, he began by noting Britain’s global reputation as a nation of animal lovers. The country’s first national animal protection law, the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, was enacted in 1822, when Londoners were sickened by the sight of emaciated cows driven to market through the city. That was followed by legislation to improve conditions in slaughterhouses in 1875; then the Protection of Animals Act in 1911; and a world-leading system for regulating scientific experiments on animals in 1986. The idea of animal sentience was incorporated into foundational E.U. law in 2009 in the Treaty of Lisbon. But with the U.K.’s exit from the bloc, Johnson’s government came under pressure from voters to establish similar — or even greater — protections.

The Bill has had its second reading in the House of Lords. Next it goes to committee, where line-by-line discussion of amendments takes place, it may be reprinted and more changes debated, and eventually it may be sent to the House of Commons, where a similar but more detailed examination and debate occur, with more committee work, changes and votes.

Courtesy of Kat Mak
Main Source: The York Press