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Some reports even suggest that octopuses may experience dreams. There has already been speculation about the consciousness of octopuses. Now that cephalopods and decapods are recognized as sentient beings, it is inevitable that we will consider and explore topics regarding the consciousnesses and minds of these animals. The review by the LSE concluded that a sufficient amount of the listed criteria were met by a number of animals categorized as cephalopods - octopuses, squids, cuttlefish - and decapods - crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. The ultimate aim when determining sentience, as explained by the researchers in their report, was to see whether the target creatures have “the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort, and excitement.” The criteria looked at phenomena such as whether the creatures had reflex responses to pain, whether they would adapt their behaviours to avoid unpleasant sensations, or whether they engaged in self-protective reflex behaviours like rubbing a place of injury to soothe the pain from it. Sentience was defined using eight overall criteria across the studies. The LSE conducted a review of over 300 studies, which demonstrates sufficient evidence for the sentience of creatures either classified as cephalopods or decapods. This announcement comes after years of well-established scientific research that says that these animals are intelligent and have consciousness. On November 19, in response to findings by the London School of Economics (LSE), the UK government announced that octopuses, crabs, and lobsters will be recognized as sentient beings by law. Show your support by signing our petition asking the UK Government to call time on animal testing.Content warning: This article mentions animal abuse. Publish an official deadline for finally ending the use of animals in experiments in the UK.Introduce ambitious targets to replace the use of animals in research and,.Increase transparency by repealing section 24 of ASPA, which shrouds animal experiments in secrecy.In light of the evidence of their sentience, the Government must act now to include decapod crustaceans in ASPA. The report by LSE says that this should change. All cephalopods have been included in ASPA since 2012, but decapod crustaceans used in animal experiments in the UK are entirely unprotected. This is the main law that regulates the use of animals in experiments in the UK. One law that does already provide some protection to cephalopods is the Animals in Scientific Procedures Act 1986 (ASPA). We now want to see amendments to existing animal welfare laws
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We welcome the Government’s recent announcement that it will now include cephalopods and decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. Cephalopods and decapod crustaceans are invertebrates. At the moment, many of these laws protect only vertebrates, which includes mammals, birds and fish. This is important because sentience refers to a living being’s capacity to experience feelings, such as pain, pleasure, and joy.Ĭrucially, sentient beings are capable of sufferingĪs a result of these findings, the report calls for all cephalopods and decapod crustaceans to be protected by the UK’s animal welfare laws. They found particularly strong evidence of sentience in octopuses, lobsters and crabs. All cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans should be protected by the UK’s animal welfare laws, according to a major study into animal sentience.Įxperts at the London School of Economics (LSE) have reviewed over 300 scientific papers to assess whether cephalopods (such as octopuses and squid) and decapod crustaceans (such as crabs and lobsters) are sentient.