3105. Brussels Parliament Declares Nonhuman Animals as Sentient Beings

By Christopher Vincent, The Brussels Times, November 23, 2018


© Belga

Editor's Note: This legislation passed by the government in Brussels is in direct opposition to the recent legislation passed in the UK in which the status previously given to nonhuman animals, that of having feelings, emotions and sentience was omitted. (See, New UK Legislation Puts Animals In Great Danger) The legislation by the UK opens up the door to any number of abuses against nonhuman animals. On the other hand, the ordinance that the government of Brussels  recently adopted specifically recognizes nonhuman animals as sentient beings with interests of their own. This legislation will provide them with greater protection, instead of less.

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The Brussels Parliament on Friday unanimously adopted a draft ordinance recognizing the specific status of animals as sentient beings.

Under existing laws, an animal is considered an object, included in the category of property and immobile goods. Under the new legislation, it will be categorised as “a living being endowed with sensitivity, interests of its own and dignity, that benefits from special protection”.

Animals will now be recognised as a specific group in society, which will give them a high degree of protection at the legal level, the Brussels State Secretary in charge of Animal Well-Being, Bianca Debaets (Christian Democratic and Flemish, CD&V, party) explained on Friday.

For Mrs Debaets, by adopting the text, Brussels has moved past the stage of symbols. In future, she noted, it will be important to consider animals as living, sentient beings when judging infractions against regulations aimed at protecting their well-being. She also recalled that the available sanctions had recently been beefed up at her request.

According to the State Secretary, only Wallonia has introduced a similar recognition in its legislation.  More broadly, at the federal level, the Senate is now studying a Constitutional amendment under which “the Federal State and federated bodies shall ensure the well-being of animals as sentient beings”.

"Further, we are perfectly in line with the spirit of the Federal Government which, through Justice Minister Koen Geens, has proposed a modification of the Civil Code to remove animals from the category of goods and create a new specific category for them,” Debaets said.

“We also learned from countries like France, the Netherlands and New Zealand, which are very advanced in this regard,” she stated after Friday’s vote. “The ultimate aim is for animals to benefit finally from the legal status that corresponds to their biological nature.”

3104. New UK Legislation Puts Nonhuman Animals in Great Danger

By Yas Necati, The Independent, November 20 2018

The Tory Government has outdone itself when it comes to neglecting animal rights this week – by effectively declaring that all animals (apart from humans, of course) have no emotions or feelings, including the ability to feel pain. While debating the Brexit bill, MPs voted not to transfer into UK law the parts of EU legislation which recognise animals have sentience, and can feel pain and emotions. 

Remember all that campaigning against the badger cull and May’s attempt to bring back fox-hunting? It was probably all a waste. As the Government begins to shape the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, it has taken a vote to scrap EU legislation that sees non-human animals as sentient beings. Once we leave the EU in 2019, it’s not only badgers and foxes that will be threatened by this change in law, but all animals that aren’t pets. So basically all animals that it will be profitable to exploit.

This vote comes in contrast to extensive scientific evidence that shows that other animals do have feelings and emotions, some even stronger than ours.

But politicians clearly think that they know better about animal brains than the majority of scientists on the planet. This complete lack of logic leads me to believe that many of our MPs probably have less intelligence than a jellyfish. But unfortunately I don’t have any stake in Parliament to vote through my personal opinions, unlike those MPs.

Realistically though, who would be surprised by this new vote? Despite Michael Gove’s calls to improve animal welfare standards post-Brexit, we all know the Government, and in fact most of the UK public, doesn’t really care about animals unless they’re cute and fluffy.

This is how we have ended up in a society where a cat being thrown in a bin sparks national outrage, but the majority of the population will complain about this while eating a burger from the local fast food chain which has probably come from a chicken that suffered abuse its whole life.

“Animal welfare” in the Government’s (and indeed the public’s) eyes is riddled with double standards. At the moment, 80 per cent of the UK’s animal welfare legislation comes from the EU – if we’re voting out the fact that animals are sentient, why would we even bother with the rest of it? If the Government doesn’t believe that animals can even feel pain, surely none of their rights will be protected at all.

When we leave the EU, pets will be protected by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. But where does this leave wild animals, those in labs, and those in other forms of captivity? Just a small example of this is cosmetics testing. Under EU law it is illegal to test on animals for cosmetics like body wash and nail varnish. But this could easily be scrapped just like the recognition of animals as sentient beings has been.

We are looking at a very grim future for animals, where hunting is reintroduced, labs are free to test on animals with as much cruelty as they wish (and no pain relief) and farms are less and less regulated.

But what worries me most about this development is that it shows just how much potential havoc Brexit could cause. Voting the recognition of animal sentience out of UK legislation is a pretty big deal, but it’s barely been reported on in mainstream news outlets. As each EU law is put to the vote, I wonder how many more will be scrapped without being brought to the public’s attention. Why are we not being consulted about what laws are being changed? Why are we barely even being told?

In the next two years, the Government will make a multitude of changes in the hope that when 2019 comes, our laws will have altered so much that no amount of campaigning at that time will be able to overturn the decisions made. Campaigners will be forced to pick the one or two “most important” rights to get back, and everything else will go through unchallenged.

It will be too difficult to change every single law when it is implemented in 2019. It is not too difficult now, however, to tackle each dodgy vote as it makes its way through Parliament.

In the coming weeks and months, MPs will be voting on our future. They will be voting on the future of other animals, but they will also be voting on the future of the environment and human beings. So let’s challenge this sham vote on animal feelings, and let’s challenge the rest of the nonsense the Tory Government tries to throw at us too.

2276. Inky the Octopus Escapes From a New Zealand Aquarium

By Dan Bilefsky, The New York Times, April 13, 2016

Inky the octopus at National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier. CreditNational Aquarium of New Zealand 

It was an audacious nighttime escape.

After busting through an enclosure, the nimble contortionist appears to have quietly crossed the floor, slithered through a narrow drain hole about six inches in diameter and jumped into the sea. Then he disappeared.

This was no Houdini, but rather a common New Zealand octopus called Inky, about the size of a soccer ball.

The breakout at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, which has captured the imagination of New Zealanders and made headlines around the world, apparently began when Inky slipped through a small gap at the top of his tank.

Octopus tracks suggest he then scampered eight feet across the floor and slid down a 164-foot-long drainpipe that dropped him into Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of North Island, according to reports in New Zealand’s news media.

The aquarium’s keepers noticed the escape when they came to work and discovered that Inky was not in his tank. A less independence-minded octopus, Blotchy, remained behind.

The aquarium’s manager, Rob Yarrall, told Radio New Zealand that employees had searched the aquarium’s pipes after discovering Inky’s trail, to no avail.

The escape happened several months ago, but it only recently came to light. “He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went,” Mr. Yarrall said. “Didn’t even leave us a message.”

Photo

Photographs with notes showing the path Inky may have taken in escaping his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier.CreditNational Aquarium of New Zealand 

Inky’s escape surprised few in the world of marine biology, where octopuses are known for their strength, dexterity and intelligence.

Alix Harvey, an aquarist at the Marine Biological Association in England, noted that octopuses, members of a class of marine animals including squid and cuttlefish called Cephalopoda, have shown themselves to be adept at escaping through spaces as small as a coin, constrained only by their beaks, the only inflexible part of their bodies.

Ms. Harvey said that octopuses had also been documented opening jars and sneaking through tiny holes on boats, and that they could deflect predators by spraying an ink that lingers in the water and acts as a decoy. Some have been seen hauling coconut shells to build underwater shelters.

“Octopuses are fantastic escape artists,” she said. “They are programmed to hunt prey at night and have a natural inclination to move around at night.”

She continued, “They have a complex brain, have excellent eyesight, and research suggests they have an ability to learn and form mental maps.”

Ms. Harvey recalled one octopus at a British aquarium that escaped nightly from his tank, slithered to a nearby tank to snack on fish for dinner, and went home.

Octopuses’ intelligence, she said, was partly an evolutionary response to their habitation in complex environments such as coral reefs, in which the animals need to hide from predators and sneak up on their prey.

Inky is not the first octopus to attract the spotlight. In the summer of 2010, Paul, an octopus in Germany, gained worldwide attention when he appeared to correctly pick the winning team in all seven of Germany’s games at the World Cup in South Africa — a feat that inspired a song. He has been immortalized in Oberhausen, Germany, with a six-foot plastic replica of him clutching a soccer ball.