The UK has shown what everyone who shouted “My Octopus Teacher” already knew: octopuses are sensitive, that is, capable of understanding things like pain and pleasure.
The country is adding an amendment to its Animal Welfare Sensitivity Bill to recognise creatures such as octopus, crabs, squid and lobsters, as well as “all other decapod crustaceans and cephalopod mollusks” as sentient creatures, according to a press release from the British Foreign Office. . Environment, food and rural environment. The bill aims to take animal sensitivity into account when developing government policies and as such can spark debates about animal rights and food choices.
“The science is now transparent that decapods and cephalopods can feel pain and it is appropriate that they are covered by this important legislation,” Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said in the statement.
The update follows a detailed report from the London School of Economics and Political Science that found those creatures must feel “pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement. “
This is due to the creatures’ “complex central nerve formula, one of the main characteristics of sensitivity,” the statement said.
“[Our] view is that the time has come to explicitly include cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans in UK animal welfare legislation,” the report says, “and to take measures proportionate to practices that are a moderate and widespread source. . “
It is worth noting that the pressure that no existing maritime industry operation and practice will be affected by the law, as it only influences government decisions in the long run. However, it’s always smart to see a primary global government take concrete steps to finally recognize the sensitivity of creatures, and how they might not like, you know, being boiled alive for their delicious meat.
READ MORE: Lobsters, octopuses and crabs recognised as sentient beings [UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs]
Learn more about octopuses: Scientists: Octopuses love to throw objects at others