Changes to a new animal welfare bill will allow the recognition of several marine animals as sentient. The image is from Shutterstock.
A new law proposed by the U.K. government will recognize a number of marine animals as sentient beings.
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill is currently being reviewed. The law originally included all animals, but not the invertebrates. The U.K. government decided to include two groups of crustaceans.
A new report published by The London School of Economics and Political Science reviewed hundreds of scientific studies on the two animal groups.
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"After reviewing over 300 scientific studies, we concluded that crustaceans should be regarded as sentient, and should therefore be included within the scope of animal welfare law," said Jonathan Birch, a philosopher of biological sciences. The government is implementing a central recommendation of my team's report.
It is difficult to prove sentience in animals.
"Sentience is the ability to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement," the researchers wrote in the report. Policymakers consider pain reception to be the central criterion when drafting new legislation on animal welfare.
The new study focused on evidence for different forms of pain reception, such as the possession of pain receptors and specific brain regions associated with pain, as well as behavioral experiments that show that animals make choices to avoid painful or stress scenarios.
Being recognized as sentient means that the welfare of crustaceans will have to be considered in future decisions. The U.K.'s animal welfare minister said that the Animal Welfare Sentience Bill gave a crucial assurance that animal wellbeing is considered when developing new laws. It is only right that decapods and cephalopods are covered by this piece of legislation because of the science that shows they can feel pain.
Existing legislation surrounding these animals will not be affected by the new listing. Selling animals to untrained handlers, transporting animals in ice-cold water, and boiling animals live without stunning them are questionable practices that remain legal even for sentient animals.
The researchers want these practices to be banned.
In the US, Switzerland, Norway, Austria and New Zealand, boiling lobsters alive without stunning them is illegal.
Live Science published the original article.
