Sentience

rogerjolly

Forum Legend
Joined
Aug 12, 2017
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Age
80
Location
Yorkshire
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill is currently in the House of Lords. The sentience in the title means that all vertebrates will be considered to be capable of feelings such as pain and pleasure. This will have to be taken into account in our dealings with them.

But don’t get too excited. It will certainly not mean an end to the killing or experimentation. It will be just that feelings will have to be considered just as their physical wellbeing is at present. So merely a teeny weeny step in the right direction.

There is an attempt to amend the bill to include cephalopods and crustaceans such as octopuses and lobsters. In my scuba diving days I was able to observe these fascinating creatures at close quarters in their natural habitat.

Lobsters are wonderfully camouflaged in brownish greenish colours. A few years ago the good people from Vegan Magazine committed a terrible blunder. The front cover carried a full page picture of a red lobster obviously because somebody thought they always looked like that. It was a bit like having a roasted turkey on the cover rather than a live one.

Traditionally octopuses were treated with some disdain possibly because their anatomy is so very different to the human one. Their blood is blue because oxygen is carried by copper instead of iron and the majority of their neurons are in their arms rather than in the brain. This total lack of anthropomorphism made it difficult for people to show empathy. Attitudes have changed because it is now appreciated just how intelligent and sentient they are.

Roger.