Decapods include animals like crabs, lobsters, shrimp, prawns, and crayfish, and cephalopods include octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. The UK government announced Friday that decapods, an order of crustaceans, and cephalopods, a class of mollusks, will now fall under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill.
Octopuses, crabs, and lobsters will be recognized as sentient beings under UK animal welfare laws after a review concluded there is strong evidence they are capable of feelings. The review defined sentience as "the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement." The UK government is updating an animal welfare law to includes octopuses, crabs, and lobsters. Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty ImagesĪ review of 300 studies concluded there is strong evidence some invertebrates are sentient. The brain structure of octopuses is very different from that of humans, but it has some of the same functions as mammal brains, such as learning abilities, including being able to solve problems, and possibly the ability to dream.An octopus is pictured Maat the Oceanopolis sea center, in Brest, western France. The recent Netflix documentary "My Octopus Teacher" showcased the unique abilities of octopuses. Because of this situation, we think it would be inappropriate to limit protection to specific orders of cephalopod, or to specific infraorders of decapod," the report said. which species are available where a lab is located). which animals can be kept well in labs) and geography (e.g. "Scientific attention has gravitated towards some (animals) rather than others for reasons of practical convenience (e.g. However, the report said these varying degrees of evidence reflected disparities in the amount of attention different animals have received from scientists. 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 behaviours including balancing threat against opportunity for reward and protection against injury or threat. LEARNING MORE ABOUT CEPHALOPODS AND DECAPODS 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. 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 provides a crucial assurance that animal wellbeing is rightly considered when developing new laws. Sign up for The Climate Barometer, delivering climate and environmental news to your inbox every week.Vertebrates, animals with a backbone, are already classified as sentient in new animal welfare legislation currently under debate in the United Kingdom. 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 cuttlefish) and decapods (such as crabs, lobsters and crayfish) should be treated as sentient beings. government, which has added the creatures to a list of sentient beings to be given protection under new animal welfare laws. Octopuses, crabs and lobsters are capable of experiencing pain or suffering, according to a review commissioned by the U.K.
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