'Will @Number10cat be out of a job'? - @MrSteerpike
Thanks for article in @spectator today in response to @CommonsEFRA evidence and @Politics_co_uk article on #SentienceBill
Thanks for article in @spectator today in response to @CommonsEFRA evidence and @Politics_co_uk article on #SentienceBill
https://twitter.com/MrSteerpike/status/1427887772304658432
2. Article asks if the #SentienceBill would put @Number10cat out of business. Cites my reference to Animal Sentience Committee role in assessing impact government policy on 'Indiscriminate poisoning of rats using inhumane methods' in @CommonsEFRA evidence.
3. The rat control question is a good one to demonstrate need for #SentienceBill and #AnimalSentienceCommittee. Short thread on why. 🐀🐀
4. In society we view rats as pests. They can spread disesase, are a nuisance in other ways, and difficult to control. Despite this, they are sentient. I.e., rats can experience pleasure, or suffer, and they can have a good life or one that goes badly for them. #Sentience
5. In society we indiscriminately kill rodents, & other 'pests' using various forms of pest control. Unfortunately, many of these cause great suffering. Rodenticides, for example, cause intense & prolonged suffering to large numbers animals. #Suffering
6. Commonly used rodenticides are anticoagulants. They cause death by internal bleeding. Rodents - or other species - bleed into body cavities including joints, the abdomen, and on the brain. #Bleeding
7. The bleeding takes place over a number of days - probably 2-3. Rodents die a slow and painful death. Bleeds on the brain are very painful. As is bleeding into joings. Bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract is painful and will cause nausea. #SlowandPainfulDeath
9. Quotation:
'In mammals & birds, anticoagulant poisoning causes extensive hemorrhagic disruption, with primary cause of death being severe internal bleeding occurring over days. The combined severity & duration of effects represent poor welfare outcomes for poisoned animals'
'In mammals & birds, anticoagulant poisoning causes extensive hemorrhagic disruption, with primary cause of death being severe internal bleeding occurring over days. The combined severity & duration of effects represent poor welfare outcomes for poisoned animals'
10. I've never seen a rat or mouse bleed to death. But I've seen plenty of dogs presented to vets that have inadvertently ingested rodenticide. We hope they have ingested within 1-2 hours, so we can make the dogs vomit. If not, we need to give Vitamin K for 3 weeks + #DogBleeding
11. Unfortunately, vets see dogs that have ingested rodenticide a few days earlier. They have often vomited with haemmorhagic diarrhoea. They are inappetent (nausea). They will be weak or collapsed (weakness). They have white mucus membranes with bruising (anaemia).
12. In small animal practice, we consider such cases a matter of great urgency. Dogs are admitted, given strong opioid pain relief, have blood transfusions, anti-nausea medications, and Vitamin K replacement. Many don't make it. #RodenticideSuffering
13. Rodenticides can cause poisoning in non-target species. But the purpose of describing impact on dogs is to highlight that this is happening each day to thousands of sentient rats, mice, and other rodents. Vets are very aware how rodenticide poisoning causes great suffering.
14. Why did I use rodenticide as an example in @CommonsEFRA evidence? Because it is precisely for this kind of situation that the #SentienceBill is required. Government formulates and implements law that permits rodenticides. Public bodies themselves use rodenticide.
15. @MrSteerpike cites the British Pest Control Association. Apparently the Association 'backs toughter legislation for wildlife crime' but feels 'the balance is tipping too far toward animal welfare, at the expense of human health and safety'.
16. The above, decoded, means that the BPCA supports toughter laws for the kind of voluntary cruelty towards a wild animal. Something like torturing a bat, I guess. #TorturingBats
17. The idea is to give the appearance the industry supports animal welfare. But of course immensely more suffering is caused by the day to day, normalised practice of causing sentient rodents to bleed to death over a few days, compared to the social deviant who tortures bats.
18. But there is great misunderstanding about the #SentienceBill. The BPCA, and perhaps readers, might think that what I have written above means that we need to ban rodenticides. Of course, it doesn't.
19. The purpose of the #SentienceBill is to ensure that government actually accounts for animal welfare in the formulation and implementation of policy. #PurposeofSentienceBill
20. There is a simple test for whether the #SentienceBill is required or not. The test is simply to see whether government has accounted for the interests of sentient beings in policy making.
21. What would this mean for rodenticide poisoning? Well, it would mean the government had structures and processes in place to assess the impact of rodenticide poisoning on (sentient) pests. #GovernmentSentienceStructuresandProcesses
22. There would be published account of how government policy did impact sentient pests such as rodents. This would include estimates of how many rodents were imapated, and assessments of the severity of the impacts. #SentientPests
23. Importantly, there would also be serious consideration of alternatives, with similar assessments of how these impact animal welfare. #AlternativestoRodentices
24. Such alternatives might include biosecurity measures, non-lethal measures such as contraception, or more humane lethal measures compared to anticoagulants. #SeriousConsiderationofAlternatives
25. Crucially, whichever option was chosen to control/manage rodent populations, the government should mitigate any harms that were caused. #MitigationofHarms
26. A final point is to compare attention of government, Parliament and society to the impacts of an issue like anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, compared to non-stun slaughter for religious communities. #RodenticideVsReligiousSlaughter
27. The debate on stun versus non-stun slaughter is about the following. In ideal circumstances at least (in reality slaughter is far from ideal), conventional slaughter using stunning renders an animal instantaneously unconsious. #ConventionalStunSlaughter
28. In non-stun slaughter for religious purposes, science tells us that cattle and sheep can take ~2-5 minutes to bleed out prior to loss of consioucness. #ReligiousNonStunSlaughter
29. As above, the above describes ideal stunning scenario for conventional stunning. There are major problems in conventional stunning such as mis-stunning leading to reganing consciousness, or suffocating millions of pigs with CO2 (EU EFSA advised complete ban on humane grounds)
30. Parliament has spent much time debating non-stun slaughter (effectively animal welfare versus religious beliefs). I can't remember any serious discussion about the use of rodenticides. #ParliamentonSentience
31. One of the functions of the #AnimalSentienceCommittee will be to inform government, and Parliament, on such issues. Sentience legislation entails that a focus should be on alleviating the greatest suffering. #RationalPolicyMaking
32. Focusing on government policy that causes greatest suffering requires evidence. The #AnimalSentienceCommittee will facilite government & Parliament in focusing on evidence on magnitude of impact, plus areas where suffering is most readily mitigated. #EvidenceBasedPolicyMaking
33. Look again at religious slaughter versus anticoagulant rodentocide poisoning. Why does government, Parliament, the media, and society care so much about non-stun slaughter? #GovernmentandParliamentPriorities
34. In non-stun slaughter, farmed animals take 2-5 minutes to bleed to death. In rodenticide poisoning, rats and mice take 2-3 days to bleed to death. Why is sociey so focused on non-stun slaughter, but not humane pest control - becuase of religion? #SentiencePriorities
35. Currently there are no structures and processes in government and Parliament that seriously assess impacts of government policy on sentient animals. Government policy has enormous potential for impacts on sentient species. #GovernmentPolicyImpactsSentientAnimals
36. Government has enormous impacts on sentient species, but we have no structures and processes in place to account for them. The #SentienceBill and #AnimalSentienceCommittee are absolutely necessary if the UK is to call itself a leader in animal welfare. 🐀🐀
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