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EU Scientific report supports calls for legal protection for lobsters, crabs and octopuses

News Release - Advocates for Animals

Westminster Animal Welfare Bill 2nd Reading in House of Commons Today

Advocates for Animals welcomes the findings of The Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare of the European Food Safety Authority (1), that decapod crustaceans (e.g. lobsters and crabs) and cephalopods (e.g.
octopuses) are able to experience pain and distress and accordingly should receive legislative protection. Advocates is leading calls for these animals to be afforded legal protection in the UK under new Animal Welfare Bills.

The Scientific Panel's conclusions are published in a report examining the scientific evidence on the sentience and capacity of certain invertebrate species to experience pain and distress. The report concluded that the largest decapod crustaceans are complex in behaviour and have a pain system and considerable learning ability. It concluded that cephalopods have a nervous system and a relatively complex brain similar to many vertebrates and sufficient in structure and function for them to experience pain.

Notably, they can experience, and learn to avoid, pain and distress as caused by electric shocks. In addition, they have significant cognitive ability including good learning capacity and memory retention; elaborate communication systems; and individual temperaments. Accordingly, the Panel recommends that cephalopods and decapod crustaceans should receive Category 1 protection as "The scientific evidence clearly indicates that those groups of animals are able to experience pain and distress, or the evidence, either directly or by analogy with animals in the same taxonomic group(s), are able to experience pain and distress."

The Scientific Panel's conclusions were reached in the context of a review of EU legislation on the use of animals for experimental purposes. However, the Panel's conclusion that cephalopods and decapod crustaceans are able to experience pain and distress clearly applies in all contexts, not just to their use in experiments.

Both Westminster's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Scottish Executive's Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) are preparing new Animal Welfare Bills (for England & Wales and Scotland respectively). The Westminster Bill has its second reading in the House of Commons today. The Scottish Parliament will consider the Scottish Bill shortly. Neither Bill currently includes cephalopods and decapod crustaceans in their definition of "animal", meaning that these creatures will have no legal protection.

The Scientific Panel's findings support those of Advocates' recent report, 'Cephalopods and Decapod Crustaceans - Their capacity to experience pain and suffering' (2). The animal protection organisation is calling on the UK Government and the Scottish Executive to include cephalopods and decapod crustaceans in the definition of "animal" in the new Animal Welfare Bills, thereby affording these creatures some form of legal protection.

Legal protection would end the cruel practice of cooking lobsters alive in boiling water. Huge numbers of these creatures are caught and killed every year: around 2.5 million lobsters are caught each year in the UK, 750,000 of these in Scotland; around 34 million crabs are caught each year in the UK, almost 15 million of these in Scotland.

Advocates' Director, Ross Minett, says: "The findings of the EU's Scientific Panel that decapod crustaceans and cephalopods have the capacity to experience pain and suffering supports our call for these animals to be afforded legal protection. We believe Westminster and the Scottish Executive should recognise this potential for suffering by including them in the definition of "animal" within the new Animal Welfare Bills."

A number of jurisdictions that have recently enacted modern animal welfare legislation have included some or all of these creatures in their definition of "animal". These jurisdictions include New Zealand, Norway, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland.

- ENDS -

Notes to Editors
For further information or interviews please call Advocates' Director, Ross Minett, on 0131 225 6039 or 07946 517585.

1 The Report of the European Food Safety Authority's Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare, Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare on a request from the Commission related to "Aspects of the biology and welfare of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes", was published on 22 December 2005 and can be found at:
www.efsa.eu.int/science/ahaw/ahaw_opinions/1286_en.html.

2 Advocates for Animals' Report, Cephalopods and Decapod Crustaceans - Their capacity to experience pain and suffering, can be found at:
www.advocatesforanimals.org/pdf/crustreport.pdf.


Source: Advocates for Animals


Date: 2006-01-10