Octopuses, crabs and lobsters are likely to experience pain or suffering, according to a review commissioned by the UK government, adding the creatures to the list of beings that need to be protected under dynamic welfare law. new object.
The report by experts at the London School of Economics reviewed 300 scientific studies to assess the evidence for credibility, and they concluded that cephalopods (such as octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ) and scavengers (such as crabs, lobsters and crayfish) should be treated as living beings.
Vertebrates, vertebrate animals, have been classified as sentient in the new animal welfare law currently being debated in the UK.
“The Animal Welfare Sentiment Bill provides an important assurance that the health of animals is properly considered when formulating new legislation. The science is now clear that scavengers and animals cephalopod Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said in a statement.
The bill, which is not yet a law, would establish an Animal Sentiment Committee, which would produce reports on how government decisions have taken into account the welfare of sentient animals. This is part of the government’s broader Action Plan on Animal Welfare.
The report says lobsters and crabs should not be boiled raw and covers best methods for transporting, stunning and slaughtering carcasses and cephalopods..
LEARN MORE ABOUT CEPHALOPODS AND DECAPODS
The report used eight different ways to measure resilience including learning ability, possession of pain receptors, connections between pain receptors and certain brain regions, response response to anesthetics. or pain medication, and behaviors include balancing threat with opportunity for reward and protection against injury or threat.
It found “very strong” evidence for submission in octopuses and “strong” evidence in most crab. For other animals in these two groups, such as squid, cuttlefish and lobsters, they found the evidence to be substantial but not strong.
However, the report said the The different levels of evidence reflect the disparities in the amount of attention different animals have received from scientists.
“Scientific attention has been focused on some (animals) rather than others for reasons of practical convenience (e.g. which animals can be grown well in a laboratory) and geography (e.g. what species are available where the laboratory is located) Given this situation, we consider it inappropriate to limit protection to specific orders of cephalopod species or organisms decapod-specific infrastructure,” the report said.
The recent Netflix documentary “My Octopus Teacher” showcased the unique abilities of the octopus. The brain structure of an octopus is very different from that of a human, but it has some functions similar to that of a mammalian brain, such as the ability to learn, including the ability to solve problems, and can the possibility of dreaming.
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