Thanks to new legislation, animals will soon be recognised as “sentient beings” in UK law. Sentience is not defined in the new Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, but it’s typically understood as the ability to feel. Why, you might wonder, does the UK need a law to declare the patently obvious (and scientifically verified) fact that animals have feelings?
Britain previously had “to pay full regard to the welfare requirements” of animals as “sentient beings” when implementing EU policies. Some parliamentarians feared that, in the absence of a similar provision in domestic law, animals would be left in a more perilous position after Brexit.
