“Animals have feelings and for this we must do everything possible not to make them suffer” is the meaning of the bill that the Parliament of Boris Johnson has started to recognize a sacrosanct truth: that that is, that animals are beings endowed with feelings.
The Animal Sentience Bill thus asked for the creation of an Animal Sentience Commission, to check that the entire British government as a whole does not activate measures that have “a negative effect on the welfare of animals as sentient beings”.
The motivation for the bill was clearly and succinctly expressed by the British Environment Minister George Eustice “We are a nation of animal lovers and the first country in the world to pass laws to protect their well-being.”
The autonomy granted by Brexit has made it possible to carry out autonomous policies also in this direction.
The package of laws and regulations that is being prepared will cover the treatment and protection of domestic and wild animals, their international trade and a code of conduct for the livestock industry.
The new law provides for a police division dedicated to the theft of pets, a phenomenon that grew across the UK during the pandemic. Pet requests during the lockdown have caused cat and dog prices to skyrocket.
The microchip will also be required for cats and not just for dogs.
Training collars that give the pet small electric shocks will be prohibited. “Our pets not only have feelings, they are family members and we want to put in place measures to protect them from unnecessary suffering,” said Peter Laurie, executive director of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, one of Britain’s leading associations for the defense of animal rights.
The new laws will also minimize international trafficking in living beings and prohibit practices such as keeping all kinds of primates as pets or hare hunting with dogs, a historic British tradition.
Illegal will be the traps designed so that the animal remains attached to them and also the export or import of hunting trophies.
Equally prohibited will be the trade in ivory or shark fins and as well the import of foie gras, obtained with a cruel practice of forced hyperalimentation of the animal.
In the agricultural sector, the British government wants to stop the export of live animals for fattening and slaughter, introduce new measures that improve the welfare of livestock during transport and provide the police with new powers to inspect stables, cages and slaughterhouses.
The meaning of these measures means that respecting animal welfare is not the only right thing to do but is something more than touching the environmental challenge, resistance to antibiotics or the prevention of new pandemics.
Thanks to the United Kingdom, animals will stop being considered objects and will be legally recognized as living beings, endowed with sensitivity.
At the moment, animals are equated with a car or any other asset that can be repurchased or mortgaged without regard for their welfare or protection.
And these criteria will also be changed on the occasion of separations or divorces.
A country’s civilization can also be seen in how it respects animals and the UK is teaching the world a lesson.