While animal welfare is mainly dealt with at EU level, it does not fall within its exclusive competence. The Commission will also consider options for animal welfare labelling to better transmit value through the food chain. The conclusions from the evaluation of the EU strategy for the protection and welfare of animals 2012–2015 will be used in this context. The report by experts at the London School of Economics looked at 300 scientific studies to evaluate evidence of sentience, and they concluded that cephalopods (such as octopuses, squid and.
Within its framework, the Commission will revise the animal welfare legislation to align it with the latest scientific evidence, broaden its scope, make it easier to enforce and ultimately ensure a higher level of animal welfare. Sentience is what matters when we consider which beings to give moral consideration to. This is unfortunate, because animal sentience is a very important issue. For example, Oregon amended its animal cruelty laws in 2013 to establish that animals are sentient beings capable of experiencing pain, stress and fear. Animal sentience has received little attention by those who have studied the characteristics and capabilities of nonhuman animals. Today, animal welfare is at the heart of sustainability, as a good level of animal welfare is linked to less antibiotic use, healthier animals entering the food chain and reduced transmission of diseases from animals to people.Īnimal welfare, as a key contribution to a sustainable livestock production, is an essential element of the ‘Farm to fork’ strategy, adopted by the European Commission in May 2020 in the context of the European Green Deal. To turn the coin, the language employed to recognize animal sentience can also limit the ethical considerations that the law might provide. The degree of centralization of the nervous system is perhaps the most important evidence concerning the sentience of an animal. Since 1974, when the first EU legislation on animal welfare was adopted, animal welfare requirements have evolved based on sound scientific knowledge, improving the quality of animals’ lives in accordance with citizens’ expectations and market demands. There are two main indicators of sentience related to the structure of animals’ nervous systems: the extent that they are centralized and the neuron count.
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These rules reflect the five freedoms contained in the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes:Īrticle 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU stipulates that, as sentient beings, full regard should be paid to animals’ welfare requirements. However, the report said these varying degrees of evidence reflected disparities in the amount of attention different animals have received from scientists.The European Union (EU) has one of the most comprehensive set of rules in the world on animal welfare, covering farm animals at the farm, during transport and at when slaughtered. For other animals in these two groups, such as squid, cuttlefish and lobsters they found the evidence was substantial but not strong. It found “very strong” evidence of sentience in octopods and “strong” evidence in most crabs. The report used eight different ways to measure sentience including learning ability, possession of pain receptors, connections between pain receptors and certain brain regions, response to anesthetics or analgesics, and behaviors including balancing threat against opportunity for reward and protection against injury or threat. Learning more about cephalopods and decapods
In other words, the reform is not intended to be merely symbolic. Spain’s bill makes clear that sentience is a legal principle that must guide law and policy regarding animals in the country. The report said lobsters and crabs shouldn’t be boiled alive and included best practices for the transport, stunning and slaughter of decapods and cephalopods. Efforts to codify legal recognition of animal sentience have sparked debate about whether such reforms have a practical effect or are merely symbolic. It is part of a wider government Action Plan for Animal Welfare. The Bill, which isn’t yet law, will establish an Animal Sentience Committee, which will issue reports on how well government decisions have taken into account the welfare of sentient animals.
The science is now clear that decapods and cephalopods can feel pain and therefore it is only right they are covered by this vital piece of legislation,” said Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith in a statement. The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill is a symbolic milestone and may open space for more accountable and responsive government policy, as well as public debate. “The Animal Welfare Sentience Bill provides a crucial assurance that animal wellbeing is rightly considered when developing new laws. A common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) moves along the seabe on August 2, 2017, in Marseille, France.
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