{"id":2748,"date":"2021-06-08T13:21:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T03:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2021-06-01T13:26:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T03:26:27","slug":"watershed-moment-for-animal-rights-in-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2748","title":{"rendered":"Watershed moment for animal rights in law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Vertebrate animals are to be recognised\nas sentient beings for the first time in UK law after the <em>Animal Welfare\n(Sentience) Bill<\/em> was introduced in May.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With sentience part of domestic law,\nnew legislation must acknowledge that animals can experience feelings such as\njoy or pain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The UK government\u2019s Action Plan for\nAnimal Welfare has also been launched, and it outlines plans to advance\nstandards and eradicate cruelty to animals locally and internationally.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plan is buttressed by greater\npenalties for those found guilty of animal abuse.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Animal Welfare minister Lord Goldsmith\nsaid the moves are indicators that the UK is striving for the highest standards\nof animal welfare in the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFormally recognising in law that\nanimals are sentient and experience feelings in the same way humans do is just\nthe first step in our flagship Action Plan for Animal Welfare which will\nfurther transform the lives of animals in this country and strengthen our position\nas a global leader,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Animal sentience was previously\nrecognised in the UK via Article 13 of the <em>Treaty on the Functioning of the\nEU<\/em>, however the article was not immediately transferred to UK law following\nBrexit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the run-up to the change, the\nBritish Veterinary Association gave strong support for recognition of animal\nsentience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur reputation for high animal welfare\nstandards is key to securing new trade partners around the world,\u201d a statement\nsaid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTherefore, enshrining sentience in law\nis vital to send a strong message about our commitment to animal welfare\nstandards.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SAM WORRAD<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vertebrate animals are to be recognised as sentient beings for the first time in UK law after the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill was introduced in May.&nbsp; With sentience part of domestic law, new legislation must acknowledge that animals can experience feelings such as joy or pain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1421,198,2160,113,402,2161,317],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-animal-rights","tag-law","tag-lord-goldsmith","tag-news-2","tag-recognition","tag-rights","tag-uk"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Vertebrate animals are to be recognised as sentient beings for the first time in UK law after the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill was introduced in May.&nbsp; With sentience part of domestic law, new legislation must acknowledge that animals can experience feelings such as joy or pain.&nbsp;","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",1554,2072,false]},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1421":{"name":"animal rights","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=animal-rights"},"198":{"name":"law","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=law"},"2160":{"name":"Lord Goldsmith","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=lord-goldsmith"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"402":{"name":"recognition","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=recognition"},"2161":{"name":"rights","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rights"},"317":{"name":"UK","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=uk"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",225,300,false],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",155,207,false],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",400,533,false],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",450,600,false],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",768,1024,false],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",71,95,false],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Official_portrait_of_Lord_Goldsmith_of_Richmond_Park_crop_2.jpg",1554,2072,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2750,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/2750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}